Banzai is a personal financial literacy tool in which students work through real life scenarios and deposit and spend their money with aid of "jars" representing budgeted money.  It helps students understand and plan a budget.

Lesson Objective: At the completion of this lesson, students will be able to create a budget to accomplish personal financial goals. Supplies Needed: Student Handout 1 U.S. Saving and Spending Web Quest (found in Task 1 and Task 2) Student Handout 2 Fast-Forward: Life in 10 Years – A Planning Activity (Found in Task 3) Student Handout 3 Personal Finance Public Service Announcement Rubric (found in Task 4) Student Handout 4 FoolProof: Personal Finance Company’s Guide toMonthly Budgeting (Found in Task 5) Student Handout Answer Key 4 FoolProof: Personal Finance Company’s Guide toMonthly Budgeting (Found in Resource Library) Student Handout 5 Personal Finance Decisions (Found in Task 6) Student Handout 6 What’s Your Budget? (Found in Task 7) Student Handout 6 Answer Key  What’s Your Budget? (Found in Resource Library)   References Econedlink: Council for Economic Education. (n.d.). Economic Glossary. Retrieved from http://www.econedlink.org/economic-resources/glossary.php 

Bank of America and Khan Academy created an online partnership to educate consumers about the basics of personal finance and money management. Students sign up for free and can accumulate points and earn badges on many topics including credit, taxes, personal banking/security, saving, school expenses, home buying, car buying, and debt. Tools include informative videos, infographics, key takeaways, and short quizzes.

Learning Objectives
Students will learn
Factors to consider when deciding where to live, including the cost of living
Benefits of having a roommate and how to set themselves up for success in living with others
How to find and rent their first apartment
How much they’ll need to budget for utilities and renters insurance
How to decide whether to rent or buy a home

Approximate Time
Lesson length: 140 mins

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to
Define the gig economy and freelancing
Understand the financial implications of working in the gig economy
Acknowledge the special importance of saving if you work a gig job

Approximate Time
Lesson length: 100 mins

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to
How to define wealth and differentiate it from “having lots of fancy stuff”
The importance of creating a budget and paying yourself first
Key aspects of three popular budgeting strategies -- 50/30/20, Zero-based, and Cash Envelope

Approximate Time
Lesson length: 80 mins

Presentation slides focused on connecting budgeting to library planning and using tools to improve the effectiveness and intentionality of spending Common School Funds.

This website includes several templates that can be used to keep track of and adjust a budget.

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to
Differentiate between gross and net pay
Create a budget on a salaried adult’s income and adjust it as required
Research and choose appropriate budgeting apps to meet specific needs

Approximate Time
Lesson length: 100 mins

Students learn about the many types of expenses associated with building a bridge. Working like engineers, they estimate the cost for materials for a bridge member of varying sizes. After making calculations, they graph their results to compare how costs change depending on the use of different materials (steel vs. concrete). They conclude by creating a proposal for a city bridge design based on their findings.

Estimated Lesson Time:

Students will be able to:
-Understand what herd mentality and FOMO are
-Explain how these two cognitive biases impact our personal finances
-Identify practical steps someone can take to combat the influence of herd mentality and FOMO

ANSWER KEY LINKS: Create a Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) account to access answer keys. They will be listed under the Full Year Curriculum tab.

Students will attempt to balance the federal budget and meet political objectives while doing so.

During this engineering design/build project, students investigate many different solutions to a problem. Their design challenge is to find a way to get school t-shirts up into the stands during home sporting events. They follow the steps of the engineering design process to design and build a usable model, all while keeping costs under budget.

Authors: Tiffany Lodholz, Morgan May, Jenny GrimesSchool: High Marq Environmental Charter School, Montello School DistrictUnit Title: Garden MathGrade Level: 7-12Content Area(s): Environmental Science, MathematicsContext:High Marq Environmental Charter School is a project and place based school that serves grades 7-12 in Marquette County, Wisconsin. Each week our students participate in a full day field experience designed to connect, explore and engage with the outdoors. These five lessons were all a part of those experiences. Our focus this year was on gardening. All of these lessons took place in the school garden on campus, Our school district has a greenhouse for us to start seeds in and our garden uses primarily raised beds. The students also traveled to a local greenhouse to purchase supplemental plants, soil, mulch, hay, and other accessories.

Students will be able to:
-Identify various rules of thumb and strategies to save money
-Determine whether a direct deposit or manually saving is the best strategy for them
-Understand how compound interest works to increase savings
-Explain how to use the Rule of 72
-Recommend different mobile apps that can help them manage and increase their savings

This lesson teaches students about the importance of budgets. First, use the Discussion Guide (found in Task 1) to teach students about this concept. Then, use the activity (found in Task 3) to assess their understanding. This activity allows students to understand the importance of budgeting, as well as to interpret and analyze budgeting decisions. A sample answer guide is provided in the Resource Library. A full lesson module related to this concept can be found on the MBA Learning Center. Visit mba.instructure.com and search for "FI:106" in the Commons. 

Every election year and for years after elections, there are several major issues that persistently trouble Americans. Every election year, politicians pledge that they will address these issues, and nearly every year they fall short of many peoples’ expectations. This time may be different, but it will take an educated voting population to explain to politicians exactly what they want done to address the issues. In this lesson, we begin that process by examining problems surrounding health care costs, funding higher education, and preserving social security. Then, students look at how the current presidential candidates are proposing to address these issues, and formulate a short media presentation using Flipgrid (https://info.flipgrid.com/) or some other media presentation tool to endorse one candidate.

In this lesson, students discover the entire process that goes into designing a rocket for any customer. In prior lessons, students learned how rockets work, but now they learn what real-world decisions engineers have to make when designing and building a rocket. They learn about important factors such as supplies, ethics, deadlines and budgets. Also, students learn about the Engineering process, and recognize that the first design is almost never the final design. Re-Engineering is a critical step in creating a rocket.

Estimated Lesson Time: 85 minutes

Students will be able to:
-Identify how the endowment effect and sunk costs affect our decision making
-Discuss how the endowment effect and sunk costs are connected to our personal finances
-Demonstrate making decisions after you’ve already spent time, money, or effort
-Choose strategies that are helpful in combating the endowment effect and sunk costs

ANSWER KEY LINKS: Create a Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) account to access answer keys. They will be listed under the Full Year Curriculum tab.

After showing a the episode of 30 Days on living on Minimum Wage or Reading a section of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich and have the students create a budget for a family of four living on minimum wage.