The Mathematics of Money CTY Course Syllabus DAY 1
TIME Morning
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WHAT Introductions Class Characteristics (15 min.) Honor Code Technology Agreement Pretest (45 min) What is money? Percents
HOW Introductions: Instructor and TA introduced themselves to the class. Class Characteristics: Had students poll each of the members of the class including the instructor and TA. Have students choose two questions whose answers can be grouped into categories. Example: How many people live in your home or apartment (be sure to count yourself)? Honor Code: Class reviewed Honor Code provided by CTY. Students were asked to sign a copy. Technology Use Contract: Class reviewed the Technology Use Contract and students were asked to sign a copy. Pre-Test: Instructor and TA administered the pre/post-test. Blank instrument was sent to academic dean by e-mail. What is money? Put questions on board: • What is currency? • What is it used for? • Are there alternatives to cash money? (barter) • What would have to happen if we did not have cash money? • What gives money value? Percents: Reviewed concepts of fractions and percents. Practiced with percents problems. (All signed papers and the corrected roster (had students check spelling) was submitted to the dean by 5pm today.)
DAY
TIME Afternoon
WHAT • • •
Banking Simple Interest Ways to Pay
HOW Banking: Services banks offer. How banks make money. Simple Interest: Reviewed concept and formulas for simple interest. Practice with simple interest problems. Introduce the complement ((1+r) sometimes called growth/decay factor in Algebra 2). Ways to Pay: Pros and cons of cash, checks, debit and credit cards.
Evening
2
Morning
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Banking (cont.) Video : Unbroke (Merrill 102 w/ Mony a & c)
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Introduction to Credit Cards (Computer Lab) • Mock Budget (Computer Lab 9:00 – 11:15 am)
Banking: (cont.) Video: Unbroke introduces financial terms and concepts. Students are asked to take notes. Credit Cards: Reviewed terms to a credit card agreement using the computer/projector in Computer lab. Pointed out some of the pitfalls. Students were asked to choose 3 credit cards to research their terms, take notes, choose their favorite and explain why they felt it was the best of the three. Mock Budget Project: Pairs of students were to choose an occupation and create a budget for a person who has just finished college and gotten their first job. Then create a budget for the same person ten years into their career.
Afternoon
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Human Capital Compound Interest
Human Capital: Different pairs of students write the occupation only on a card that is posted on the wall. What do these people do? Rank them in order from highest pay to lowest pay on the wall. Now have each group answer the questions on their occupation using the information on the card. Starting at one end, students present any parts of their job that may have been missed in earlier discussion, education required, math skills required and salary for their occupation. Order of cards is adjusted as needed. Compound Interest: The concepts and formula for calculating compound interest are reviewed.
DAY
3
TIME Evening
Morning
•
• • • •
WHAT Compound Interest (cont.)
HOW Compound Interest: (cont.) Finish graph with simple and compound interest noting that compound interest needs more intermediate points to see curve developed. Practice with compound interest problems.
Story of Pine Gulch Part 1 Calculation of Monthly Payments for Loans Story of Pine Gulch Part 2 Mortgage Payment Problems
Story of Pine Gulch: Read the story of Pine Gulch in two parts and had class discussion using questions at the end. Monthly Payments for Loans: Reviewed the formula given in the Budget folder for calculating the monthly payment for a mortgage or other loan. Did 2 examples. Mortgage Payment Problems: students worked on the mortgage payment problems in pairs. In future, set up checkpoints where instructor/TA check answers to catch any misunderstandings or students not making progress.
Afternoon
• •
Bookstore Mortgage Payment Problems (cont.)
Trip to Bookstore: Some students had not pre-ordered the text online and the Bookstore was closed Sunday when students arrived with parents. So the class took a trip to the Bookstore for these students to purchase their textbooks and any supplies that they still needed for class. Mortgage Payment Problems: finished problems.
Evening
•
Stocks and Equity
Stocks and Equity: Stocks are a long term commitment, good for retirement, 401K funds, Stock Indices, Stock Exchanges
DAY 4
TIME Morning
WHAT • Stocks and Diversification • Rate of Return • Rule of 72 • Mock Budget (Computer Lab 10:30 – 12:00 noon)
HOW Diversification: Look at rate of return for 60% stocks and 40% bonds for a $1,000 investment in good and bad economy. Rate of Return: New - Old Old Rule of 72: Shortcut to finding doubling time in years for a given interest rate expressed in percent. (interest rate) (doubling time) ∼ 72
Afternoon
• • •
Hannah’s Horrible Problem Social Security and Medicare (FICA) Payroll Taxes and Paycheck Stubs
Hannah’s Horrible Problem: play about receiving a first job and paycheck, whose amount is smaller due to withholding of taxes. Social Security and Medicare: Review the concepts behind Social Security and Medicare. Introduce the upcoming problem where benefits paid out will increase to more than taxes paid in ~ 2045. Payroll Taxes and Paycheck Stubs: Review the information and example from the budget packet.
5
Evening
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Morning
• •
Withholding Problems
Review FICA taxes Introduce Taxes of Monyland Project • Mock Budget (Computer Lab 10:30 – 12:00 noon)
Withholding Problems: Practice calculating FICA taxes with withholding problems. FICA Taxes: Review Taxes of Monyland: Introduce project. Break into groups of 3 – 4 students and have each group devise a combination of taxes to provide enough revenue to provide same level of services, somewhat better services or much better services. Mock Budget: Students continue to research bracketed parts of budget while in computer lab.
DAY
TIME Afternoon
Evening (Sunday)
6
Morning
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•
WHAT HOW Taxes of Monyland: Students create posters showing the Taxes of Monyland Project (cont.) First Presentation Monyland Project combination of taxes used to create the revenue for Monyland and give reasons for their choices.
Mortgage Payment Problems: finished problems.
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Mortgage Payment Worksheet (cont.) Supply and Demand
• • •
Supply and Demand How to Compute Income Taxes Income Tax Scenarios
Supply and Demand: Introduction to supply and demand and questions.
Supply and Demand: Basic supply and demand curves.
Income Taxes: Reviewed examples in how to compute income taxes instructions. Income Tax Scenarios: Student pairs practiced the steps on the problems in Income Tax Scenarios. I checked the answers on the first page before students proceeded to later problems to catch any misunderstandings. Afternoon
•
Evening
• •
Mock Budget (Computer Lab 1:00 – 3:00 pm) Mock Budget (cont.) Group preferences
Mock Budget (cont.): Student pairs work on budgets. Goal – to be able to put numbers into the budgets for Stage 1 and 2. Mock Budget (cont.): work to have all numbers in both budgets Group Preferences: Students were asked to write down up to 5 names of students that they would like to be grouped with and up to 3 that they would prefer not to be grouped with. Preferences were used in assigning groups for the Mock Business Project.
DAY 7
TIME Morning
• • •
WHAT More Supply and Demand Taxes of Monyland Presentations Mock Budget
HOW More Supply and Demand: Shifting of supply or demand curves and consequences. Practice with Supply and Demand questions. Taxes of Monyland: Presentations by other 3 groups. Mock Budget: Students work on non-bracketed portions of the Mock budget.
Afternoon
•
Mock Budget (Computer Lab 1:00 – 3:00 pm) • Mock Business
Mock Budget: Students need to start putting numbers into the tables at the back of the budget packets (both stages) to start seeing if they balance. Mock Business: Assigned groups for Business Project. Had students think about products/services to sell – supply budget $20.
Evening
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Mock Business (cont.) Market Research by Mony A Mid Course Self-Evaluations
Mock Business (cont.): Students chose company names and selected positions. Thought about setting stock prices. Market Research: Met with Mony a so that they could do marketing research on our class about their products. Mid Course Self-Evaluations: Wrote bullets on the board. Asked students to describe how they were doing or needed to improve doing various items such as taking notes.
8
Morning
•
Mock Business (cont.) (Computer Lab 9:00 – 10:30 am) • Mock Budget (cont.)
Mock Business: price out supplies and create supply request by 3pm Wednesday deadline. Mock Budget: Finish any portions that need adjustment to balance. Work on presentations.
Afternoon
•
Mock Business Project (cont.)
Mock Business Project: Student groups worked on their Capitalization and Market Research Plans. Groups created market surveys.
DAY
9
TIME Evening
Morning
•
WHAT Mock Business Project (cont.)
HOW Mock Business Project: Student groups worked on their Financial Plans. Groups recorded the results of their market surveys.
• •
Mock Business Project Mock Budget Project
Mock Business Project: Groups worked on Production Plan. Mock Budget Project: Finish getting both budgets to balance. Start tables and pie charts for presentations.
Afternoon
• • •
Mock Budget Project Break with Mony A Mock Business Project
Mock Budget Project: Finished pie (circle) charts for Stage 1 and Stage 2 Budgets. Started planning presentations. Break with Mony A: Students were given classroom cash and were able to buy and sell stock with students from Mony A. Mock Business Project: Students recorded stocks sold. Some businesses opened checking accounts with an initial $20 deposit from sale of stock. Purchase orders for supplies due by 3pm.
10
Evening
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Morning
•
Mock Business (cont.)
Mock Business (cont.): Students open checking accounts with funds raised from selling stock and purchase supplies. Started production.
Afternoon
• • •
Mock Budget Presentations Mock Business (cont.) Currency Exchange
Mock Budgets (cont.): Presentations on budgets were given by student pairs.
Reading on Federal Deficit Video – Federal Deficit (Merrill 102 w/ Mony A & C)
Federal Deficit: JA reading, video, discussion
Mock Business (cont.): Students continued to work on production. Currency Exchange: Example exchange rate problem. Model use of conversions and dimensional analysis to make sure units are correct. Discuss strong/weak currencies and effects. Practice with exchange rate problems.
DAY
TIME Evening
• •
WHAT Mock Business (cont.) Vocabulary review
HOW Mock Business (cont.): Students continued to work on production. Vocabulary Review: students reviewed vocabulary with fly swatter game. Wrote terms and answers on board. Problem or definition is read, students swat the correct answer with a fly swatter. Two teams of students, members of each team take turns swatting.
11
Morning
Afternoon
• •
Stock Game Computer Lab 9 – 10:30 am Mock Business cont.
Stock Game: www.vse.marketwatch.com CTYMONYGAME – open for a year. Teams of four students were formed. One student in the team was in charge of transactions and signed into the game. Each student was to research some companies and decide on one company to invest in. Answer: − What does the company do? − What is its ticker symbol? − What is it currently trading at? (price per share) − How many shares did you buy? − Three reasons why you wanted to invest in this company. o Has it been in the news lately? o Is it opening up a new market to increase demand?
• • •
APR vs APY Break with Mony a Bad Banks Radio Play
APR vs APY: Reviewed the concepts behind creating an APY, an annual percentage yield equivalent to compounding more frequently than once a year. Practice with APR vs APY problems. Bad Banks: NPR episode explaining the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the effect on bank balance sheets. Parts read by student volunteers.
Evening
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Bad Banks cont. Discussion
DAY 12
13
14
TIME Morning
•
WHAT Stock Game Computer Lab 9 – 10:30 am Bonds
Afternoon
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Mock Business End Sales
Evening
•
Morning
•
Mock Business
Mock Business: Finish financial folder. Work on presentation.
Afternoon
•
Mock Business
Mock Business: Finish final financial statement and create letter to stockholders. Liquidate business. Work on presentation.
Evening
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Review Game with Mony a
Morning
• •
Student Evaluations Post Assessment
•
Video – Financial Crisis (Merrill 102 w/ Mony a & c)
HOW Stock Game: cont. 1) Find out why your stock performed up or down. 2) Decide if you want to sell or buy more (reasons!) 3) Open excel worksheet and record data Stock, current price, # shares, equity value, Initial Inv, rate of return 4) E-mail worksheet to TA Mock Business: Finish production phase. Enter data on inventory and sales.
Video: 11 minute explanation of the mortgage crisis/housing bubble. Questions from students. Frontline : Behind the Meltdown with commentary by instructors.
Student Evaluations: Students filled out evaluations proctored by a TA from another course with course instructor waiting in the hall until forms are collected and put back into envelope in charge of a student volunteer to be handed to an administrator. Post Assessment: Instructor and TA administered the post assessment.
Afternoon
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Mock Company Presentations (Merrill 102 w/ Mony a & c)
Presentations: Student companies made presentations. Mony c – one company, and Junior Achievement representative, Mony a four companies and Mony b four companies. Pay out to shareholders, conversion of classroom money to candy at break. One classroom dollar = one hershey’s kiss. (ran long)
DAY
TIME Evening
WHAT No Thursday evening session • Clean up and pack classroom
15
Morning 9 – 11am
•
Mony Games in Fireside Lounge
Afternoon
• •
Closing Ceremony Parent Teacher Conferences
HOW
Games: Met with Mony a and c to play money games in Fireside Lounge.
