Group Members Names: Ellie Bane, Kate Jones, Claire Marsh TA: Tyler

Case 4

Overview of Lesson: After being introduced to the idea of budgeting through the game Spent, students will be given an excel software and a financial scenario and will be asked to create a budget with the following categories: income, taxes, planned savings, and fixed variable expenses.

Description of Learners: Most are in 10th through 12th grade, typically have approximately 30 students in the classroom. Personal Finance is a graduation requirement, variety of different learner levels.

Learning Environment: Rectangular tables where up to four students can sit. The school is located approximately 45 miles outside a large metropolitan area, in a somewhat rural area.

Technology: Students have laptops, but not all can access the Internet from home. Teacher has access to a projector, Wireless internet, and an interactive whiteboard.

Intended Learning Goals: We want students to be able to create budgets, while taking into account income, taxes, planned savings, and fixed variable expenses. We want the students to understand the importance of budgets, and how planning ahead is important.

Lesson Content: The lesson is about budgeting, the students will be creating their own budget, given a scenario. The students will be shown how to use excel, and then they will be shown an excel sheet that is complete with a sample budget. We want the students to focus on how important keeping a budget is, and how planning ahead is important, as well.

Learning Objectives: Given excel software and a scenario, students will be able to create a basic budget with categories for income, taxes, planned savings, and fixed variable expenses.

Standards: PFR- Create a basic budget with categories for income, taxes, planned savings, 3.1.1 and fixed and variable expenses.

Required Materials: Excel software The game Spent Slips of paper with scenarios

Procedures: 1. Students will be asked to play the game spent, which will introduce them to the concepts of budgeting. 2. Students will then be shown a sample budget made using an excel sheet and will be given a few pointers on using excel. 3. Next, students will be asked to open excel and slips of paper with financial scenarios will be distributed to each student. 4. Students will then be asked to create their own budgets using the information on the slips of paper, which includes information on income, taxes, planned savings, and fixed variable expenses. 5. Students will turn in their budgets for evaluation. 6. Budgets will be returned to students during the next class period with written feedback.

Assessment: Students will be asked to turn in the budgets they have created, which will be checked to ensure they include each of the required categories and that the student stayed within budget. The budgets will be returned to the students with written feedback.

Inspiration: We want students to first play the game Spent to emphasize the importance of budgeting and to help them understand what the consequences of poor budgeting might be. The rest of our lesson plan was greatly influenced by the IDOE personal finance standard that students should be able to create a basic budget with categories for income, taxes, planned savings, and fixed and variable expenses. We found this standard on the IDOE website. We are going with a hands on approach of having students make their own budget, rather than just lecturing about budgets. It is our hope that this method will allow students to better acquire and retain the skill. Students have laptops and will be using excel, since excel is a fairly easy to use tool and because it is commonly used in the real world of finance.

Journal Articles: Our first article, Digital Games in Education: The Design of Games-Based Learning Environments, was surprising at first when we began reading it. Originally we were expecting to find articles in favor of educational games; however, this article is not in favor of these educational games. This article says that we are looking for new ways to teach the children of this new, digital age. Understandably, people turn to educational games because of their motivation and engagement. They are a fun way to learn, but there are set backs. They state that less advanced students benefit from games. What about the more advanced students? Its not fair to them to have their learning hindered while the others learn what they need from the lesson. Also, it is important for the teacher to have a full understanding of the game before using it in a lesson. To do this requires a lot of time, an understanding of the software, etc., and not all teachers are able/capable of this. Our second article, Students' attitudes toward playing games and using games in education: Comparing Scotland and the Netherlands, had a different view on the developing topic. The researchers surveyed students of High Education institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands on their gaming habits, what their motivation was, why they played, etc. Instead of writing of the idea of educational games, the article thinks it would be a good idea to research the topic even further. The students seemed to respond positively to the idea, and the games were beneficial.

References/Reference Materials: "SPENT." SPENT. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. <http://playspent.org>. http://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/curriculum/pfrpartirubric1.pdf Gros, B. (2007). Digital Games in Education: The Design of Games-Based Learning Environments. Journal Of Research On Technology In Education (International Society For Technology In Education), 40(1), 23-38. Hainey, T., Westera, W., Connolly, T. M., Boyle, L., Baxter, G., Beeby, R. B., et al. (2013). Students' attitudes toward playing games and using games in education: Comparing Scotland and the Netherlands.Computers & Education, 69, 474-484. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.0