Economics Ideas

For Economics, I have been trying to do more long term projects. I have found that they get the ideas and concepts much more by doing these. The first one that I do is I have fake money that they get paid for doing jobs and being in class biweekly. With that money, they have to keep a checkbook, and pay rent and other bills. I also have a game called "That's Life" that they have to play every few weeks and they draw cards to see what unexpected expense they encounter. This can be from buying lunch at Subway to buying new tires. I also discuss with them about what happens they if they lose their money. They have to keep track of their money all semester long, including what they get paid and what they spend.

Another project I do is have them start a business. They have to do the research and find out how much it really costs to start a business and what else goes into starting a business. I have put the documents and rubrics here on LiveBinder.

The next big project I do is for Personal Finance, which I think is one of the most important things we can teach our students. I have the students pick from a hat if they are married, single or divorced, what education level they have and how many kids they have, 1-8. They are to assume they are 30 years old and figure out a month's budget. They pick the month, and figure out their job, create a resume and calculate their taxes and more. I have put the documents and rubrics here on LiveBinder