1 financial literacy final

¥.€.$.

Young Economists of Stillwater

Cedarcrest DECA

Cedarcrest High School

29000 NE 150th Street

Duvall, WA 98019

Josh Budig, Jake Jewell, Coraly Miller

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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Overview

Cedarcrest High School has more 950 students and 61 DECA members. Our chapter aims

to gain maximum involvement in all the activities that we do including fundraisers, chapter

social events, and competition. During the 2015-2016 school year, Coraly Miller Jacob Jewel,

and Joshua Budig, had the pleasure to teach Mrs. Farnworth’s 5th grade class on financial

literacy. The overall objective from teaching the class was to

“Create an active learning environment by empowering Mrs. Farnworth’s 5th grade class to use what they have

learned from our Financial Literacy class to critically think and make responsible financial decisions and to be able to problem solve, reflect, and adapt to those decisions”.

After the objective was clear, the curriculum was chosen by analyzing multiple curriculums with

our group, and we decided the Financial Fitness for Life curriculum was going to meet our

overall objective the best. We presented the Financial Fitness for Life lesson plans to the

beginning Marketing 1 class to obtain their feedback and approval. After their recommendations

and approval our team contacted the Stillwater Elementary principal Mr. Madigan and 5th grade

teacher Mrs. Farnworth to discuss our intentions to teach her class. We presented our lesson plan

and they were excited to have the involvement of high school DECA in the elementary school.

We scheduled 7 dates to teach that included the following dates: November 6th, November 13th,

December 4th, December 11th, December 16th, December 17th and January 8th. Each date we spent

1 hour the night before gathering our materials and time boxing our agenda plans. Then the next

day we would spend 45 minutes teaching a practice lesson to the 24 students in the Marketing I

class. The lessons we taught at the elementary school each lasted 1 hour, broken up into exciting

activities that lasted no longer than 10 minutes each to prevent students from getting bored.

Management of Activities

Each lesson was carefully planned out with a theme and fit within a 1 hour time period. The

material in the lessons focused on teaching economic and personal financial concepts, utilize

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various learning styles that include audio, visual, reading, writing, kinetic, and application of the

lesson theme. Below is each lesson with an overview description.

1. Lesson 1 Earning income

Ice-breaker activities and introduction to curriculum

2. Lesson 2 Urban Mouse and Rural Mouse

A fictional community to learn why people create businesses to provide goods

and services for their communities.

3. Lesson 3 People Pay Taxes

Taught the students when and why people pay taxes

4. Lesson 4 The Grasshopper and the Ant

A fable about satisfying wants today and planning for the future.

5. Lesson 5 Savings Starts with Wanting More Lesson 5

The students set a realistic financial goal, determined their strategy for saving, and

decided how much they would save to achieve their goals

6. Lesson 6 part 1 Hello Working World Capstone Project Lesson 6 part 1

Applications of all the lessons by playing “The Bean Game” budget activity in

class

7. Lesson 6 part 2 Hello Working World Capstone Project Lesson 6 part 2

Applications of all the lessons by playing “Hello Working World” budget activity

at home with parents to promote financial discussion. Then presented results in

class.

Every activity we did had a specific purpose and used the Visual, Audio, Read/Write, and

kinesthetic learning style. Below are the VARK learning styles explained.

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We utilized the VARK learning styles in each lesson to make sure the students understood

the concepts and reinforced those using different learning techniques. We believe this was an

important component in the success of our project.

Our most popular activity we did was DECA Pen Pals. During the first lesson the

students kept asking about the Cedarcrest DECA students and what they were like. Our team

channeled their interest by having them write to “Dear Pen pal” during the second lesson and

discuss with them what they had learned and questions they had in the letter. After the initial

letter, the high schoolers responded back with their names and through all of the lessons the

students got to personally know their Pen pals’ name, hobbies, and they received feedback on

questions they had. Our chapter surprised the 5th graders the last lesson when we brought the

Pen pals to our lesson to talk and answer questions with the kids. They were thrilled to finally

meet their Pen pals and it was a great way to finish our project.

Evaluation and Recommendations

The students began to always look forward to when the “cool DECA high schoolers” would

come and teach. They understood the concepts of each lesson, and they made rational

decisions for the last budgeting projects. It was fulfilling to see them expand their financial

literacy and rewarding to know we made a positive impact in their lives. We recommend to

future chapters to teach more than one class to positively affect a larger number of students.

Chapter Member Involvement

Chapter membership= 61 members

Lesson 1- 24 Marketing I students, 13 of them are DECA members = 21%

Lesson 2- 24 Marketing I students, 13 of them are DECA members, 29 Advanced Marketing

DECA II students = 68.85%









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II. INTRODUCTION

A. Description of local DECA chapter

Cedarcrest High School is a small 2A secondary school that has approximately 950 people.

In the small town of Duvall Washington, Cedarcrest is the only High School in the Riverview

school district. Cedarcrest’s DECA Chapter has 61 members and is run by Marc Hillestad who is

the marketing and business teacher at the school. The leaders in our DECA chapter serve to

foster leadership among members through community service and membership activities. We are

involved in community service, school fundraisers, charitable fundraisers, and DECA

competition. DECA promotes community service by putting on events like the Holly Jolly Fun

Run, and the Big Rock Classic Car Show to raise money for charity. The Big Rock Classic Car

show has been put on by Cedarcrest DECA members for the past 9 years, and functions to spread

awareness and donations for prostate cancer. Events like these are prime examples of the strong

foothold that the CHS local chapter holds in the community of Duvall. To add, the Holly Jolly

Fun Run was a community service event our chapter created in order to raise gifts for less

fortunate kids and families who might not be able to afford gifts. The fun run was a great way for

our chapter to foster leadership within our club by delegating tasks and empowering the

underclassmen with responsibility. On top of the events we put on, our chapter also constantly

takes small efforts to raise donations for local charities. One of the charities we help is called

Acres of Diamonds which is a group that provides housing for domestic violence families and

victims. The main way our chapter supports Acres of Diamonds is by hosting “miracle minutes”

at sporting events and assemblies. A “miracle minute" is a one minute rush of gathering

donations into containers that are passed around in a high populated area. The miracle minute

earnings have helped many families within our community. Our local chapter is a community

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oriented and charity driven club that strives to both keep its members involved and challenge

current members to explore opportunities beyond themselves such as volunteering and

competition.

B. Description of the school and community

Cedarcrest High School is fed by Tolt middle school, and the middle school is fed by four

elementary schools; Stillwater, Cherry Valley, Carnation, and Eagle Rock. Geographic location

determines which elementary school students will go to, but they all eventually end up at the

same middle and high school. Stillwater Elementary is located near Lake Marcel, about 10

minutes away from Cedarcrest High School. Financial Literacy teams have worked with

Stillwater Elementary in the past, and we chose to continue to work with them because we have

an established relationship. There is a need for financial literacy in our town, and Cedarcrest

DECA has helped educate our communities’ youth to meet that need. Cedarcrest has about 950

students enrolled and nearly 61 of those students are members of the Cedarcrest DECA chapter.

III. MANAGEMENT OF ACTIVITIES TARGET AT OUTSIDE AUDIENCE

A. Purpose of the activities

Before starting our lesson plan, our group met and identified a goal for our promotion

project. We decided that we wanted to “create and active learning environment by empowering

Mrs. Farnworth’s 5th grade class to use what they have learned from our Financial Literacy class

to critically think and make responsible financial decisions and to be able to problem solve,

reflect, and adapt to these decisions.” We then pursued our goal by creating a lesson plan that

catered to developing the 5th grade students with these skills. The purpose of the lesson plan

structure was to build off previous concepts as we advanced in the lessons, which would lead to a

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final culminating budgeting event which would use all the elements we had taught, and furthered

their understanding of the concepts.

After analyzing multiple curriculums- Practice Money Skills for Life, NCDPI Financial

Literacy, Financial Fitness for Life, and others, we decided that the Financial Fitness for Life

was the best curriculum because it was specifically created for a 5th grade level, and the agenda

speed called for 1 hour lessons which was similar to what we wanted. We then organized the first

six lessons and outlined the objectives and goals of each lesson. We then presented our agenda

proposal to 24 beginning Marketing I students to obtain there feedback and to gain practice on

pacing the lesson. The Marketing I students approved our proposal and gave us critical feedback

that would enhance our lessons, specifically time boxing each activity and switching learning

styles to prevent students from becoming bored. We then went back through our lesson plans and

included more activities and different learning styles by teaching in the four main learning style

areas: Visual, Auditory, Reading and Writing, and Kinesthetic. Below are each lesson, and the

purpose behind these lessons.

STAGE 1: EARNING INCOME

1. Earning income Lesson 1- Students don’t always realize that their ability to spend

is limited by their ability to earn income. We introduced students to economic and

personal finance concepts that included goods, human capital, human resources,

income, investment in human capital, services, and wages. By the end of this

lesson, students would able to define the concepts, explain how people earn

income by providing recourses in the marketplace, explain connection between

human capital and income, and identifying ways in which they can invest in

human capital.

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2. Urban Mouse and Rural Mouse Lesson 2- the purpose was to set up a fictional

community to learn why people create businesses to provide goods and services

for their communities. The economic and personal finance concepts used to

describe this community included cost of production, entrepreneurs, goods,

income, opportunity recognition, profit, revenue, services. By the end of this

lesson, students were able to define the concepts, and calculate profit by

subtracting the cost of production from revenue.

3. People Pay Taxes Lesson 3- The purpose of this lesson was to teach the students

when and why people pay taxes. They learned about income and the differences

between gross and net income. They also learned that the government taxes

income to pay for goods and services not provided by private enterprise. The

economic and personal finance concepts explored were gross income, income,

income taxes, net income, payroll taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and taxes. By

the end of this lesson the students were able to define the concepts, explain what

the government uses tax revenue for and specific examples of the goods and

services provided, as well as being able to explain the difference between gross

and net income.

STAGE 2: SAVING

1. The Grasshopper and the Ant Lesson 4- In this fable the 5th grades learned

satisfying wants today and planning for the future. They then created fables of

their own to further express their understanding about important decisions of

consuming and saving. The economic and personal finance concepts explored

were economic wants, interest, opportunity cost, savings, spending, and trade-off.

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By the end of the lesson the students were able to define the concepts, and then

analyze trade-offs and opportunity cost in a decision about saving, identify

reasons to save, explain why savings helps you in the future, use the opportunity

cost concept to compare and contrast saving, and explaining how interest serves

as an incentive to save. The overall purpose of this lesson was to have the students

critically analyze financial decisions because resources and incomes are limited.

2. Savings Starts with Wanting More Lesson 5- The purpose of this lesson was to

create personal economic wants for the students, and then having them critically

think about decisions in regards to saving their own money. The students set a

goal, determined their strategy for saving, and decided how much they would save

to achieve their goals, and learned where to save money. The economic and

personal finance concepts explored were economic wants, incentive, interest,

long-term goals, savings, and short-term goals. At the end of the lesson the

students were able to define the concepts, explain the components of a savings

plan, create realistic long-term and short-term goals, give examples of incentives,

and compare and contrast savings options.

STAGE 3: CAPSTONE PROJECT

1. Hello Working World Capstone Project Lesson 6- The final activity was designed

to culminate and apply all the lessons into a final project activity done in class and

at home with the students’ parents. This activity was two budgeting challenges

using elements of all the lessons, and took two teaching days to complete. The

students learned about the options of the working world, regarding jobs, marital

status, spouses/roommates occupation, monthly salary and net income, housing,

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food, utilities, entertainment, and savings plans. The students learned what it will

take to live their “ideal lifestyle”, and take in consideration taxes and expenses.

The final question was to analyze their final balance, then determine how they

could change their future to support their wanted lifestyle.

Each lesson built off one another, and led to the final capstone project. The purpose of

our series of lessons was to teach the students how to analyze financial situations, and how to be

financially successful. Once we had the purpose of our lessons, we then had to determine what

type of learning and activities would allow the students to understand and remember the lessons.

B. Planning and Organization of Activities

After our initial meeting on what concepts and objective we wanted to achieve for each

lesson and how we would plan to capstone our lessons, we then went into the specifics on how

we would teach to make sure the students understood the material. We decided it was best for us

to present each lesson to Cedarcrest’s beginning Marketing I class, to obtain there feedback and

to practice the teaching pace to meet our agenda.

The next step was to reach out to Mrs. Farnworth asking if we could teach her students

about financial literacy. She was thrilled to have high school students interacting with the

elementary kids and replied back that she was excited to have us teach. We then met with her, as

well as Stillwater Elementary schools principle Mr. Madigan to discuss our lesson plan, and

dates that would work best for us to teach. We determined the Friday early release days would be

best since the high school releases at 12:30 pm while the elementary school gets out at 2:00 pm,

allowing us to teach from 1:00- 2:00 pm. The dates we agreed to teach on were November 6th,

November 13th, December 4th, December 11th, December 16th, December 17th and January 8th.

Each week before a lesson we would meet as a group for about an hour to discuss speaking roles

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and materials we needed for the upcoming lesson. Jacob Jewell usually created the economic and

personal finance concept PowerPoints, Coraly Miller would create and print off worksheets, and

Josh Budig would designate speaking roles and create review presentations. We would then

practice the lesson with the marketing I class and edit the lesson based on the feedback prior to

presenting to the Stillwater kids.

We also included a social component in our curriculum by having the 5th graders wright

to “Dear Pen pal” about what they had learned and questions they had, then 29 of our high

school Advance Marketing II DECA members would respond to their letters with their name and

answers to their questions as well as information about themselves. This was planned after the

first lesson because the 5th graders kept asking about the high school DECA members so we

decided to dedicate 10 minutes every lesson for them to talk directly with them and to summarize

what they learned that day. Below is each lesson that we discussed with the beginning

Marketing I class, Mrs. Farnworth and Mr. Madigan, and how we time boxed, planned, and

organized the activities to meet the lesson objectives.


1. Earning income Lesson 1-

Time Box Agenda for Earning income Lesson 1 , November 6th, 1 hour

Minutes Activity Learning style Speaker

0-5 min Introduction of names and curriculum purpose as well as outline Audio Jacob, Josh, Corally5-15 min Guessing game on various occupations, actively discuss with students answers Audio Jacob 15-17 min Transitional break, pass out occupational worksheet and salary cards Read/Write Jacob, Josh, Corally17-25 min PowerPoint on concepts Visual Jacob25-35 min Have students do worksheet, walk around and help Read/Write Jacob, Josh, Corally35-45 min Go over answers and discuss reasoning Audio Josh45-47 min Transitional break, answer any last questions Audio Corally47-55 min BrainPOP video on Money Audio/Visual Corally55-60 min Recap and review lesson, write main points on Activeboard Audio/Visual Jacob, Josh, Corally

The first goal of this lesson was to break the ice and introduce ourselves, and for

the students to feel comfortable with us teaching them. We agreed that a guessing

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game about various occupations would break the ice and reach the audio learners.

We then decided to include an occupational worksheet and salary cards to cater to

the read/write learners and would teach the students about different jobs and the

income they make. Finally we included a PowerPoint on the economic and

personal finance concepts and also a BrainPOP video with the theme of earning

income that targeted the visual

learners, and visually enforced what

the worksheet had taught. We

organized the first lesson for us to

meet and get to know the students,

introduce them to financial concepts,

and meet the learning styles of the

majority of students. Coraly Miller is pictured to the left helping a student who

was having trouble with the worksheet.

2. Urban Mouse and Rural Mouse Lesson 2-

Time Box Agenda for Urban and Rural Mouse Lesson 2 , November 13th, 1 hour


0-5 min Review and discuss last lesson concepts/ main ideas Audio/Visual Jacob, Josh, Corally5-10 min Ask “what do dry cleaners do?” Audio Josh10-13 min Transitional break/ handout Urban Mouse and Rural Mouse Visual Jacob, Josh, Corally13-20 min PowerPoint on Concepts Visual Jacob 20-30 min Student read out loud, stop and review each paragraph Audio/Read Jacob, Josh, Corally30-33min Transitional Break/ hand out questions to story Reading Corally33-43 min Answer questions Writing/Social Corally43-45 min Transitional break/ into BrainPOP Video Social Jacob45-53 min BrainPOP video Audio/Visual Josh53-60 min Recap/review/Pen pals Audio/Visual Jacob, Josh, Corally

We decided that we needed to start off lesson 2 with a quick review of the concept

and ideas established in lesson 1. We then decided we would start teaching the

new concepts with a guessing game about “what do dry cleaners do?” which

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would break the ice, create

discussion, and reach the audio

learners. Jacob then would go over

the concepts with a PowerPoint.

Once the students would learn the

concept the question asked earlier

was extended by handing out a story

about an Urban Mouse and Rural Mouse because it was a fun story would engage

the students. Taking turns, students were scheduled to read aloud each paragraph

which would enforce the audio and reading learning styles. In order to enforce the

comprehension and ideas, we included review questions in the handout, which fell

under the category of learning through writing. We then played a BrainPOP video

and reviewed what we had learned that day. Finally by the 2nd lesson we had

feedback from the students and they kept asking about what the high school kids

were like. We decided to capitalize on this interest by creating DECA pen pals.

After this lesson we would slot 10 minutes to have the 5th graders write what they

had learned and questions they had to ‘Dear Pen pal’. Jacob Jewell is pictured to

the left helping a student understand the comprehension and message of the story.

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3. People Pay Taxes Lesson 3-

Time Box Agenda for People Pay Taxes Lesson 3 , December 4th, 1 hour


0-5 min Ask “why do people pay taxes?” Audio Josh5-10 min Ask “What is Sales, Property, and income tax?” Audio Corally10-15 min PowerPoint on concepts Audio/Visual Jacob15-20 min Activity work sheet on ‘Mike Muggles working at Burger Barn’ Read Corally20-25 min Discuss, answer questions Audio/writing Josh25-30 min Then ask to take away taxes; federal, payroll, state, social security Audio Jacob30-35 min Discuss and reinforce why we need taxes Audio Corally35- 40 min Calculate net income Writing Jacob40-45 min Review key points Audio Jacob, Josh, Corally45-47 min Transition/ ask to take out STAGE 1 materials Social Corally47-55 min Earning Income section review Audio/Visual Jacob, Josh, Corally55-60 min Pen pals Audio Jacob, Josh, Corally

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We determined lesson 3 had two components: the first was to identify why people

pay taxes, and then review the main concepts of STAGE 1 EARNING INCOME.

The lesson was planned to start off with audio learning by discussing taxes, then

visually going over economic and personal finance concepts by a PowerPoint. We

then would hand out an activity worksheet that would incorporate

audio/writing/reading learning styles. Lesson 3 would then be reviewed and then

we would review STAGE 1 EARNING INCOME to finalize the understanding of

the first stage. The students would then wright back to the high schoolers response

and again describe what they had learned and questions they had for the day.

Jacob Jewel is pictured to the right going over the PowerPoint concepts. Josh

Budig is pictured to the left helping a student calculate income.

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STAGE 2: SAVING

1. The Grasshopper and the Ant Lesson 4-

Time Box Agenda for The Grasshopper and the Ant Lesson 4 , December 11th, 1 hour


0-5 min Introduction to saving by asking “why would you save?” Audio/Visual Corally5-7 min Transition/ pass out story Social Corally7-17 min Have students take turn reading story then write extension paragraph Audio/read Jacob17-27min Connect fable to own life, share examples discussion Audio Josh27-35 min PowerPoint Audio/Visual Jacob35-45 min Discussion Audio Josh45-50 min Review Audio/Visual Corally50-60 min Pen pals Writing/Social Jacob, Josh, Corally

The first 3 lessons focused on earning income and stage 2 focused on the “what

should I do with my disposable income” aspect. We planned to start of this lesson

with a fable about a grasshopper and ant. The plan was for the students to learn

about the trade-off between satisfying

want today and for the future. They

would use the fable to connect to their

own life and personal saving and

spending decisions. After the

audio/reading learning, we then would

go over a visual PowerPoint to

reinforce the concepts. We would then discuss and review the lesson. Finally the

students would write back to their Pen pals and describe what they had learned

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and questions they had. Coraly Miller is shown discussing the with the student

about the fable he wrote.

2. Savings Starts with Wanting More Lesson 5-

Time Box Agenda for Savings Starts with Wanting More Lesson 5, December 16th, 1 hour


0-2 min Draw a piggy bank, purse and coffee jar and ask "what do these have in common?" Audio/Visual Josh2-4 min Explain discuss how people get income by working Audio Corally4-6 min Ask if the students earn income by doing chores then ask “what do you do with it?” Audio Corally6-10 min Discuss spending and saving and the situations you would do each Audio Josh10-18 min PowerPoint on concepts Audio/Visual Jacob18-20 min Ask “why do you want to save?” Audio Josh20-30 min Pass out Lesson 5 worksheet that has students list goods and services Writing/Read Corally30-32 min Ask what goods and services they put down Audio Jacob32-34 min Have them circle what they can afford now, and what they can save to get Writing/Social Corally34-44 min Have them create realistic short term and long term goals based on there answers, Audio/Writing Jacob

discuss and have students calculate how much needed to be saved per month44-50 min Review Audio/Visual Josh50-60 min Pen Pals Writing/Social Jacob, Josh, Corally

The 5th lesson was specifically planned to transition from talking about the

concepts into personally applying them into the students’ lives. This lesson was

aimed to discuss where to save, and why to save or spend. The students would

then be introduced to the concepts and then put a list of goods and services on a

worksheet. Each student would then circle the realistic goods and services then

created long term and short term

goal. The class would then

discuss how to get the income

for their goals and how much per

month they would have to save,

per month to meet those goals. The picture demonstrates how the students’ goals

started with short term and long term goals. Some were unrealistic like the long

term goal of a start ship, but it was to demonstrate and discuss unrealistic versus

realistic goals.

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1. Hello Working World Capstone Project Lesson 6 Day 1-

Time Box Agenda for "Hello Working World" Lesson 6 day 1, December 17th, 1 hour


0-5 PowerPoint on concepts Audio/Visual Jacob5-10 min "The Bean Game" pass out activity, explain Audio/Risual Jacob, Josh, Corally10-20 min Round #1 Social/Kinetic Corally20-25 min Discuss Audio Josh25-35 min Round #2 Social/Kinetic Jacob 35-40 mim Discuss Audio Corally40-50 min "Hello Working World" pass out activity, explain Audio/Read Jacob, Josh, Corally50-60 min Pen Pals Writing/Social Jacob, Josh, Corally

The capstone project was planned

for two budgeting activities; one in

class created by Utah State

University called “The Bean

Game”, and one to send home

created by Scholastic called “Hello

Working World” for the students

to do over break with their parents.

These budgeting activities were obtained by analyzing many budgeting activities

with our advisor, group, and Mrs. Farnworth. The economic and personal finance

concepts were covered to introduce the students to the lesson. Then the students

would participate in a kinetic and social lesson called “The Bean Game”, which

gives every kid a “20 Bean Salary” and consisted of two rounds. For round #1 the

individual had to select one item in each category (food, housing, furnishing,

transportation, insurance, clothing and laundry). Each category items costed a

different amount of beans. Once the student was finished selecting the items in the

required categories to use up their 20 beans, we would then ask the student the

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reasoning behind why they chose certain items, and what goals they had in mind.

They then would compare their findings with their classmates. Round #2 gave the

students only 13 beans and the students would have to decide on what items to

give up, and what changes to make. After round #2 we planned to discuss what

items were given up, what they learned about the money process, and compared

the budget-cutting choices with their classmates. After this activity, we then had

another activity for the students to take home and do with their parents called

“Hello Working World” which was more advanced then “The Bean Game”. After

the lesson the students then had time to write to their Pen pals. Jake Jewell is

shown celebrating with a student on his “aha!” moment regarding budgeting.

2. Hello Working World Capstone Project Lesson 6 Day 2-

Time Box Agenda for "Hello Working World" Lesson 6 day 2, January 8th, 1 hour


0-30 min "Hello Working World" presentations Audio/Visual Jacob, Josh, Corally30-40 Feedback on presentations Audio Jacob, Josh, Corally40-42 min Introduce highschooler Pen Pals Social Jacob, Josh, Corally42-50 min Question and answer with highschoolers Audio/Social DECA highschoolers50-60 min 5th graders discussed what they have learned, give feedback Audio Jacob, Josh, Corally

Part 2 of lesson 6 was organized to allow presentation time of the “Hello Working

World” activity. For this activity the student had to choose an occupation and

salary by drawing a number, then

calculating their monthly income

based on their yearly income. A

number was drawled determine marital

status (odd number was single, even

was married). The students who drew

an even number then had to draw their

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spouse’s occupation and salary. After this, students then had to calculate their

taxes based on their salary taxed at a rate of 30%. After calculating their net

income, the students could then budget what they could afford concerning

housing, transportation, marital status, utilities, entertainment, and savings. After

the activity presentations were done, we created time for the 5th graders to meet

some of their high school Pen Pals. There was time for them to ask questions

about what they had learned, and what they have done in DECA. We then slotted

ten minutes to gain feedback from the 5th graders to determine what could be done

better in the future. The Pen pal entry picture shows how 5th grader Nathan was

telling his high school Pen pal Alex about what he had learned.

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C. IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVITIES


Earning income Lesson 1

Lesson 1 focused on breaking the ice and getting the 5th graders comfortable with us. We

started off by introducing ourselves as members in DECA and passed out DECA pins as well as

DECA themed folders that had been made by the Advanced Marketing II DECA students. Each

folder had different financial quotes, terms and pictures that interested the 5th graders, and they

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Above is the budgeting

activity we obtained from

Scholastic and organized

for the 5th graders to do

with their parents. To the

left is a picture of Mrs.

Farnworth’s class

celebrating the last lesson.

also got them familiar with why we were teaching, and our goals. They learned the economic and

personal finance concepts that include goods, human capital, human resources, income,

investment in human capital, services, and wages by a PowerPoint and class discussion. They

were also excited to learn about salaries based on occupations from the worksheet we handed

out. At the end of the lesson the 5th graders were eager to raise their hand when we were

reviewing what we had taught them. Taking turns the students would share their thoughts and

contribute to a class discussion. They also kept asking about what the high school DECA kids

were like and what DECA was about. Their interest gave us an idea to create a “Dear Pen pal”

activity that would allow them to communicate directly with the Cedarcrest High School DECA

members. We established a friendly and fun atmosphere during the first lesson.

Urban Mouse and Rural Mouse Lesson 2

For the first part of each lesson, we did a quick review to refresh the previous lesson the

students had learned. After that they were eager to answer discussion questions on services and

goods. We then handed them a story on the Urban Mouse and Rural Mouse that was read aloud

one student at a time. Since we were consistently switching learning styles and activities, they

remained engaged during the full lesson. When the 5th graders read the Urban Mouse and Rural

Mouse they were really able to distinguish why communities have businesses and the difference

between goods and services. They were also excited to make the decision on where they would

work if they lived in Carter City, and also create their own business name and products they

would sell. The last part of the lesson we taught them how to calculate profit which they learned

very quickly. We ended the day with surprising them that they had a Pen pal DECA member

from the high school, and they were thrilled to write to them on questions and what they had

learned from our financial literacy class.

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People Pay Taxes Lesson 3

Learning about different businesses and services in a community set up lesson 3 as an

extension to lesson 2. The students understood how businesses generate income, and in this

lesson we introduced that businesses have to pay taxes on their income. At first, the 5th graders

were hesitant to answer what goods and services were provided by the government, but once we

gave them a hint about police and firefighters they jumped into discussion. They made

calculations on their “Mike Muggles working at Burger Barn” worksheet and the simplicity of

the story allowed the students to primarily focus on the math component. The end of lesson 3

called for a review of all the lessons so far, and the students were able to memorize and master

all the components from lessons 1,2,3. They had reached the end of STAGE 1 EARNING

INCOME and were excited to advance in the curriculum. At the end of this lesson we surprised

the students by passing out their Pen pals responses, and the 5th graders were ecstatic to read

them. They shared with each other what the responses of their Pen pals were and wrote back

about what they had learned that day, and tied together the last 3 lessons. Creating stages in our

overall lesson plan allowed the 5th graders to reflect on what they had learned, anchor and apply

information.

STAGE 2: SAVING

The Grasshopper and the Ant Lesson 4

We started off this lesson by writing the word “Fable” on the whiteboard. We asked the

students if they could recall any fables they have read and herd and they took turns eagerly

sharing their favorite fables. They all agreed that fables teach a lesson about life. We decided to

use a fable in this lesson be3cause the concept of fables was currently being taught by Mrs.

Farnworth for the 5th grade curriculum. We then asked them about situations when they had to

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choose between two economic wants; deciding whether to spend their money on candy or for

their mothers birthday present. They explained situations when they had to make decisions and

we lead them to explain their rationale for those decisions. After our discussion, they understood

that sometimes we have to give up things in order to get the thing we want the most. We

introduced the term “opportunity cost” for these situations, and went right into a fable called

“The Grasshopper and the Ant”. They all took turns reading out loud and soon learned that the

grasshopper spent all of his money all the time. The grasshopper then tried to borrow money

from the ant but instead of lending the grasshopper money the ant explained the benefits of

saving and how to save. The grasshopper realizes life isn’t fun when you have no money because

you spent it all, so he decided to save so he could have money in the future. The students

understood the moral of the story, so we had them wright an extra chapter to assess their concept

on what the grasshopper would do once he saved his money. The majority of the stories

explained how the grasshopper would put money aside weekly, and budget for spending each

week. They also included the term “opportunity cost” in their stories to stress how the

grasshopper realized that he cannot always impulse spend his money if he has long term

financial goals. We then defined terms in the story for better understanding and reviewed the

lesson. The 5th graders then eagerly wrote back to their Pen pals about what they had learned for

the day and were excited to start knowing there Pen pals by name and interests.

Savings Starts with Wanting More Lesson 5

Lesson 5 started with a picture of a piggy bank, purse, and coffee jar on the white board.

The students quickly made the connection that these pictures are all places to save money. They

then shared how they made money by doing chores and saving it “under my mattress” and “in

my piggy bank”. A critical learning point in this lesson was when they had to circle realistic

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goods and services they could afford now, and could afford one year from when we taught the

lesson. There was a boy named Aaron who circled a service called “Camp Waskowitz” which is

the camp the Stillwater Elementary 5th graders go to at the end of the school year. We then

helped him create a savings goal and calculate how much he needed to save each month. He

determined he needed to save $30 a month for five months to reach his goal. He agreed that if he

did his chores and saved his money he would be able to accomplish his goal. This lesson was a

breakthrough because the students realized that they were using what they had learned from us to

accomplish their financial goals. We reviewed the lessons from the 2nd stage and the students

were sharp on our discussion primarily because they could relate and use what we had taught

them. At the end of the lesson the 5th graders were excited to share their realistic financial goals

to their high school Pen pals.


Hello Working World Capstone Project Lesson 6 Day 1

After going over the economic and personal finance concepts like we did in every lesson,

we then passed out a kinetic budgeting game called the “Bean Game.” We worked with the

students to decide what they wanted to spend their 20 beans on which included food, housing,

furnishing, transportation, insurance, clothing and laundry. Some students were excited to share

how many beans they had left, while others were struggling to keep enough beans to pay for

things they needed. We then challenged them to only use 13 beans, which caused the students to

use rationale based on concepts they had learned especially on what they needed and what they

wanted. After they finished this activity we introduced a take home project to do with their

parents to create financial conversations with their guardians. At the end of part one of the final

lesson they wrote back to their Pen pals on what decisions they made regarding the bean game.

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The final day was a celebration of what the 5th graders had learned. They shared their

“Hello Working World” and talked about what they had discussed with their parents. We then

gave them feedback on their presentations and were proud of how far they had come. We also

surprised the 5th graders by bringing in some of their Pen pals from the high school. They were

excited to meet them and ask them questions about DECA and how they use DECA in their

lives. The 5th graders then gave us critical feedback about our lessons that will help our future

members who teach financial literacy and expand this to other 5th grade class in our district.

IV. EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Evaluation of Campaign


Earning Income Lesson 1

During lesson 1, we set an important foundation of what DECA was. We explained our club and

what we did, along with introducing ourselves to the kids. Lesson one was mainly focused on

getting a feel for the classroom and making sure the students knew why we were there. The

students seemed to be extremely excited to have us there with them, and were eager to learn.

During our first lesson we decided that having group discussions and activities would be the

most effective way to break the ice and get to know some of the students. By introducing a few

basic skills we were able to see what topics they knew about, and what topics we should

implement more in the next lesson. After lesson 1 we chatted about how it went and came to the

decision to have pen pals from Mr. Hillestad’s marketing class write to the fifth graders. This

idea turned out to be a hit and something that the kids always looked forward to. The first lesson

ran very smoothly and we were excited to come back.

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Urban Mouse and Rural Mouse Lesson 2

As a group we decided that at the beginning of each lesson we would do a quick refresher on the

previous lesson. After we finished with that we dove into a fun story which the kids enjoyed and

were engaged in due to the fact they took turns reading aloud. After the story we had an activity

for them to do which furthered their connection with the story and gave them a chance to reflect

on it. By having activities where they were able to be creative and talk about themselves, they

were heavily engaged and attentive. They also were quick to grasp concepts and would often

refer back to concepts they had learned in previous weeks with no difficulties.

People Pay Taxes Lesson 3

Lesson three was more challenging than the two previous lessons were. Although we realized

that the fifth graders almost always asked for help when they were stumped and they were eager

to learn and master the concepts. By building on what we had learned the previous week they

were able to show us that their knowledge was growing. They became more invested in the

lesson and paid attention when we spoke. It was important that we be patient with them and give

them as much help as necessary, especially with the tougher math concepts.

STAGE 2: SAVING

The Grasshopper and the Ant Lesson 4

We believe that this lesson was highly successful because of the way we started it off. By writing

one word on the board we were able to grasp the attention of the students and let them wonder

where we were going to go with it. Then, after we had them take turns reading a story aloud we

let them come up with another chapter to add to the end of the story. By letting their

imaginations lose, they didn’t think of this lesson as boring or learning necessarily. By weaving

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important concepts in such as opportunity costs, and tradeoffs, they were able to learn, while also

having fun. It also seemed the pen pals were still a big hit.

Saving Starts with Wanting More Lesson

This lesson was a big success due to the relevance it had to the students and how it could easily

be applied to real world situations for them. Having them come up with a realistic goal and

calculate how long it would take them to save up money to reach that certain goal, was very

interesting. Many of the kids informed us that they were going to start saving for that specific

goal because of our lesson. We instilled in them that having savings goals and prioritizing what

to buy is an important part of life, and an exciting one too.



The standout activity of our time spent with the fifth graders was the bean game. The bean game

was a wonderful project to have them do because it was hands on, engaging, and relevant. The

students put the concepts we had been teaching them to use such as budgeting, opportunity cost,

and more. They were able to tell us their reasoning behind the choices they made, highlighting

the knowledge they had retained from previous weeks. They had to make decisions and support

those decisions with facts. It was fun, entertaining and we were proud to see how far they had

come.


Our last day with the students was a chance for us to reflect on what they had learned and

celebrate it as well. After discussing with them what they liked and didn’t like we gained new

and valuable insight. They informed us that they highly enjoyed the hands on activities and the

group discussions we had. They also liked when they were given the opportunity to collaborate

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with their peers. They especially enjoyed getting the chance to meet some of the pen pals. It was

an exciting day for us and for the kids.

B. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ADDITIONAL NEW ACTIVITES FOR FUTURE

CAMPAIGNS

Our Financial Literacy Project was a project designed to teach kids about important life

skills that they could use to help them in their everyday life for years to come. It involved

extensive planning, rigorous research, and hours of teaching. We had to have time management

skills, be organized, and learn to work effectively as a team. The skills and knowledge attained

from this experience will easily transfer into our day to day lives. We hope that DECA members

in our chapter continue to grow this program next year. The Marketing I and II students that were

involved have been signing up to take Personal Finance next semester to learn more bout their

finances, and members in those classes have expressed interest in wanting to teach the program

at Stillwater next year or the elementary they attended. Also the kids at Stillwater talk about and

recognize the DECA logo and activities we do around town and have expressed interest in

wanting to join DECA when they get to high school. We believe it is an outstanding program

and that it should flourish in years to come. Some of our recommendations include recruiting

more members and extending it to all of the fifth grade classes at Stillwater Elementary instead

of just one. This way the different DECA students who are teaching the classes can compare how

lessons went, and cultivate more ideas for teaching the fifth graders. We also recommend

spanning this out over a longer period of time. There was so much more we could have taught

them and would have loved to keep building upon the lessons we taught. Another idea would be

to join with a local bank/credit union to come and speak about savings opportunities. We

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encourage future groups who take on this project to allow adequate time to plan and organize all

of their lessons.

V. Bibliography

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/web/96184ex.asp

https://extension.usu.edu/utah/files/uploads/Finance/THE%20BEAN%20GAME.pdf

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/sites/default/files/asset/file/hello_working_world.pdf

http://fffl.councilforeconed.org/

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http://fffl.councilforeconed.org/

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/sites/default/files/asset/file/hello_working_world.pdf

https://extension.usu.edu/utah/files/uploads/Finance/THE%20BEAN%20GAME.pdf

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/web/96184ex.asp

1 financial literacy final

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