Who Needs Personal Finance?

1. Introduction Task Resources Process Evaluation Conclusion Standards Citations Teacher Notes A WebQuest for 11th or 12th Grade (Mathematics) Designed by – Judy Krites, j_krites@vwcs.net EDTL 680 – Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning – Summer 2006 Based on a template from The WebQuest Page Who Needs Personal Finance?

2. Introduction • Students often ask “Why do we have to know this?” In this WebQuest, you will have the opportunity to answer this question about the very course you are now taking and will then use that answer as justification for other students to enroll in the same course next year.

3. Task • Financial literacy is a concept/subject that is being posed as a required course in several states. In this WebQuest, you will be investigating the pros of having a financial literacy/personal finance course at your high school. • Your school is starting a new Personal Literacy course next year. Once you have some justifications for this course, you will be designing a presentation to be given to high school students to help convince them this is a good course to take. • In groups of three, each of you will be given a role to take on. Using thoughts from this role, you will build your group presentation.

4. Resources In this WebQuest, students will need: • Access to internet accessible computers, • Pencils and paper for note taking, • Posterboard, markers, and other materials to create visual aids for their presentations. • All website resources are listed in the Citations section of the WebQuest.

5. Process (pg 1) • During this WebQuest, each of you will be assigned to a group of three. The teacher will make these assignments before you begin the WebQuest. • Within your groups, each of you are to take on a role of either guidance counselor, mathematics teacher, or parent. Make these choices now. • Before you actually start the WebQuest, let’s see how much you know about personal finance. Check out this website and take the quiz to see what you know about personal finance: Finance Quiz • Now for your WebQuest, you need to have a general idea of what is included in a personal finance course, besides the concepts behind the questions from the quiz. Check out the following sites to get ideas as to what is taught in different personal finance courses: • It All Adds Up Teacher’s Guide • Personal Finance Course Goals

6. Process, continued (pg 2) • Now, each of you are to start your personal research. Collect information as to why you would be supporting a class such as this and why your students/child should take this course. Begin by completing the INFOhio Activityto get a basic idea of the reasons to have a course such as this in school. • Guidance Counselor: Your job is to encourage students to take courses and to direct them to classes that are appropriate to them. Consider students who are both college bound and are job or military bound. Use the following websites to get an idea as to why different students of different backgrounds would be benefited by taking this course. • Young people taking on more debt • Utah High School Financial Planning Program • Personal Finance Courses in High School on the Rise

7. INFOhio Activity • INFOhio Activity Search Steps: • Enter URL address: www.infohio.org • Select Resources for Grades 9 – 12. • Select NewsBank, Inc. from the Core Collections of Electronic Resources. • Enter local username and password, if promted for authentication. Your teacher, librarian or technology coordinator will have this information. • Select NewsBank, Inc. once again. • Click on Plain Dealer, The under Search Shortcuts. • Click on Advanced Search next to the green search button. • Type Teens in the first search box (after the word “for”)and Personal Finance in the second (after the “AND”). Click the green Search button. • Scroll down to the article from August 22, 2005 entitled – Spending habits start young, with few school programs, parents must teach money management. • Select and read this article. • Using the article as a reference, list at least 3 reasons that personal finance could and should be studied in schools.

8. Process, continued (pg 3) • Teacher: You actually teach the school’s personal finance course. You will use the following websites to investigate why you believe this is a quality course for students to take. You will need to consider what is actually taught in the course and even possible information from other schools which have taught similar courses. • Integrating financial education into school curricula (read “Why is financial education the right solution?”) • High school students not taught basic finance • Parent: Consider why you want your child and his or her friends to take the personal finance course. What in your experiences as a parent has made you believe this is an important class for high school students to take? • High schoolers flunk personal finance • Building Teen Personal Finance Skills a Top Worry for Parents

9. Process, continued (pg 4) • Once you all have a basic idea of why this course is important and how you can justify it considering your role, you need to begin putting together a presentation to be given to current students who may want to take this course. Consider questions such as the following: • Why should the student take this course versus another elective or math class? • How will this course help them in the future, with college, military, or a job?

10. Process, continued (pg 5) • Your presentation will need to be 5-10 minutes in length. It will need to be fun, entertaining and informative enough to catch a student’s attention. It will be graded on the rubric found in the Evaluation section of this WebQuest

11. Evaluation: • Your presentation will be graded on the Grading Rubric. • Each category will be graded individually and given equal weight. • Cumulative grades are awarded to the entire group. • The grading scale is as follows: • A – 20-17 points • B – 16-13 points • C – 12-9 points • D – 9-5 points • F – 4-0 points

12. Grading Rubric

13. Conclusion • Congratulations, your presentation helped convince several students to take this course. We now have enough students to make two sections of the Personal Finance course. Thanks for all of your hard work in making your presentation and this course a success.

14. Standards • Ohio Academic Content Standards for Mathematics • Mathematical Process Standard – To enable students to apply problem-solving and decision-making techniques, and communicate mathematical ideas. • Apply mathematical modeling to workplace and consumer situations, including problem formulation, identification of a mathematical model, interpretation of solution within the model, and validation to original problem situations. • Communicate mathematical ideas orally and in writing with a clear purpose and appropriate for a specific audience. • National Standards in Personal Finance • To enable students to understand and comprehend the principles of personal finance and how they relate to the changing world and local economies. • Guidelines for Effective School Library Media Programs in Ohio • Information Literacy • Investigate information through independent discovery, peer collaboration, and inquiry learning; read a variety of literary material for academic need, personal interest and lifelong learning; and practice responsible usage and ethical behavior when using library media center materials. • Technology Literacy • Utilize the Internet for research, classroom assignments and appropriate personal interests. • Ohio Academic Content Standards for Technology • Technology and Information Literacy • Determine and apply an evaluative process to all information sources chosen for a project.

15. Teacher Notes • There are many websites now offering lesson plans on personal finance. I recommend a Google search of “personal finance” and “high school.” • A number of the sites also have additional information in their citations and recommended reading. These can also be very helpful in researching the topic. • Two of the websites are pdf files. When students try to link to these sites they need to choose “open” from the text box that occurs. It will then seem as if nothing has happened. The files can be found in the taskbar of their desktop. They must “esc” out of the WebQuest before retrieving these articles.

16. Citations (pg 1) • Burke, S. & Hatzikonstantinou, M. (August 9, 2005). Building teen personal finance skills, a top worry for parents, Visa survey finds. Retrieved July 17, 2006, from http://usa.visa.com/about_visa/newsroom/press-release/nr278.html • Guillen, J. (2005, August 22). Spending habits start youth with few school programs, parents must teach money management. The (Cleveland, OH) Plain Dealer. Retrieved July 12, 2006, from INFOhio database. • High schoolers flunk personal finance. (April 1, 2004). MSnbc. Retrieved July 17, 2006, from www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4645264 • It all adds up. (n.d.) Retrieved July 12, 2006, from the It All Adds Up Web site: www.italladdsup.org/guide.htm • Mead, Nan S. Personal finance courses in high school on the rise: Financial literacy education surges in nation’s schools. (September 27, 2005). Retrieved July 12, 2006, from the National Endowment for Financial Education Web site: http://www.nefe.org/news/news092705.html • Microsoft office clipart and media. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2006, from Microsoft Office Online http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/results.aspx?lc=en-us&Scope=MC&Query=money • National Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Finance. (2002). National standards in personal finance. Retrieved April 6, 2006, from http://www.jumpstart.org/guide.htm • News about the financial literacy of youth. (n.d.) Retrieved July 12, 2006, from the Utah High School Financial Planning Program Web site: http://extension.usu.edu/files/Hsfpp/news.html

17. Citations (pg 2) • Ohio Department of Education. (2002). Academic content standards: K-12 mathematics. Columbus, OH, Ohio Department of Education. • Ohio Department of Education. (2003). Academic content standards: K-12 Technology. Columbus, OH, Ohio Department of Education. • Ohio Department of Education. (2003). Ohio guidelines for effective school library media programs: K-12. Retrieved July 30, 2006, from http://ims.ode.state.oh.us/ODE/IMS/ACS/Content/technology_standards.pdf • Personal finance course goals. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2006, from the Arkansas State Department of Education Web site: http://arkedu.state.ar.us/curriculum/pdf/peronal_finance.pdf • Survey: High school students not taught basic finance.(March 3, 2005). USAToday. Retrieved July 12, 2006, from www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-03-03-finance-highscool_x.htm • United States Department of the Treasury Office of Financial Education. (October 2002). Integrating financial education into school curriculum. Retrieved April 6, 2006, from www.treas.gov/press/releases/docs/white.pdf • Villavicencio,M. (May 25, 2005). Young people taking on more debt. Newshour Extra. Retrieved April 6, 2006, from www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june05/debt_5-25.html • Yuille, B. (April 4, 2006). Can you pass a personal finance course? Retrieved July 30, 2006, from Bankrate.com Web site: www.bankrate.com/brm/news/pf/20060421c1.asp