Maybe, like me, you wouldn’t think of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as a source of curriculum. Then, like me, you would be wrong. The Money Smart curriculum is free and offers resources for PreK- 12. Because I make games, I was very interested in trying out their “games”.
Money Smart Games for Middle/ High School are bad games – here’s why I recommend them
I’ve often said that most educational games are either bad education or bad games and this is no exception. The Borrowing Basics game does not fit my definition of a game. You click on a character and it tells you about a topic, like rent-to-own agreements or debit versus credit cards. In other parts, you click on a table and a bit of text shows up explaining, for example, how the principal and interest add up to give you total payments.
There aren’t many game components in this “game”. The characters are animated. The player gets points for correct answers. If logged in and playing to earn a certificate, the player has to answer correctly to get points to win a level.
If it’s not such a great game, why am I recommending it? Because, it’s good education and, in my experience, at around 13 to 15 years, students start to become interested in money topics because they are at least thinking about getting their own place, buying a car or furniture in the future, getting a credit card. However, they don’t know much about those topics and they KNOW they don’t know much. The games are short enough students can watch one in less than half of a class period.
Three more reasons Money Smart is a good tool for your toolbox
- There is a ton of ready-made resources here that teachers can use, everything from videos to worksheets
- Even though I mostly looked at the resources for middle school and up, there is a lot for younger students as well. If you are a teacher and use these, please let me know your opinion.
- The site is available in Spanish as well as English
An off-label use for Money Smart – Spanish class !
Spanish is my second language and I always wish I was more fluent. I focused on statistics and programming in school, so I never had any real instruction in Spanish. I found most language classes to be excruciatingly boring. I don’t want to hear about the vegetables Maria is buying for the omelette she’s making ever again. Have your students in intermediate Spanish courses play this game in Spanish to work on their listening comprehension skills and improve their financial literacy at the same time.
And if you are looking for some actual GAMES that are bilingual and teach math, you can start with AzTech: The story begins or, for a game in Spanish, check out Bake-a-palooza en español .