7th grade attends Finance Park to learn hands-on financial skills
As the culmination of a six-week, integrated unit in math class with Mr. Tracy Parks, the 7th-grade class spent a day using their skills at Finance Park.
“How to manage finances is such an important topic,” said Mr. Parks. “A huge part of their experience was learning how to budget when provided with different lifestyles, salary ranges, dependents/children, and more. They had to determine what to cut back on and put towards their wants/needs each month to stay within their given budget.”
Finance Park is a reality-based, hands-on simulation that enables students to build foundations for making intelligent lifelong personal finance decisions. It also allows them to develop a realistic understanding of the economic issues they must deal with upon graduation from high school and in the development of a budget. To facilitate the simulation, Finance Park focuses on decisions about transportation, investment, home improvement, banking, housing, entertainment, healthcare, utilities, food, home furnishings, clothing, and education.
Overall, the Finance Park program assists students by allowing them to:
- Develop basic personal finance concepts
- Utilize quality concepts to plan personal finances
- Understand the advantages of saving and investing
- Understand the advantages and disadvantages to using credit
- Allocate time wisely and follow a time schedule
- Work within a group structure to acquire, evaluate, organize and maintain information.
We asked 7th grader Karolina Kurtova about her experience.
What was your favorite part of Finance Park?
“I really like that Finance Park gave everyone different life scenarios, I think that made it more fun for everyone. I also really liked being able to go shopping for things such as clothes, food, a house, and more.”
What is one thing that you learned that you think will help you most in the future?
“I didn’t know a lot about managing my money before this. But now, I know how to manage money and how to be responsible with it. I’ll definitely carry those skills into my future. I also learned that it’s very important to save your money.”
