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Technology Infused Lesson Plan

Title: Surprise Career! Try to Budget for this Career for One Month

Subject(s): Family Budget Assignment, Learning Excel

Learning Level: 11th and 12th Grades

Abstract:

You can control the future career of your students randomly. Select various careers ranging from telemarketer, lawyer, computer consultant, waitress, etc. The careers and family structure are randomly assigned. Ask your students to create a monthly budget based on their careers using a free/accredited web page: http://www.salary.com. The students should budget for a car, house/apartment, insurance (optional), entertainment, utilities, savings, etc. Once the students have allocated their resources appropriately in an Excel spreadsheet throw the scholars a curve ball. Just imagine, the family’s home burns to the ground and the students did not choose to purchase insurance. The teacher has creative license and the curve balls create a ripple of excitement and the occasional headache.

Invitation:

• What defines financial responsibility?
• What are the practical applications of making a monthly budget?
• What kinds of monthly expenses will you need to budget for a comfortable lifestyle not incurring debt?
• What are the negative implications of incurring debt and not being financially responsible?
• How does your individual budget withhold the pressures of unforeseen life emergencies, i.e., medical bills?
• Are you familiar with Excel?
• What is your skill level navigating the Internet to find information you need?

Tasks:

• Each student is required to finish itemized tasks outlined in a Family Budget/worksheet
• Prior to distributing the Family Budget/worksheet the teacher should assign marital status, age, career, number of children, and location

Example:

Please read the following scenario:

You are currently living in (identify a major city) ___________________________________

You are: Married Divorced Single (circle one)

You have _______ children (_______ girls, ages ______ and _______ boys, ages ________)

Career _____________________________________

Your age _____________

You are responsible for creating a monthly budget for your family. Your budget must be realistic and you must live within your means. Create a spreadsheet that reflects your family's monthly income and expenditures with the following information:

Your occupation is _____________________________________

Find and print the annual income for this occupation in the city where you live, then divide the amount by 12, the number of months in a year, to determine your monthly income. Don't forget about taxes. Each state in the union deducts different amounts but usually ranges from 6%-8%. State, Federal, Social Security, and Medicare are all deducted from your paychecks. To make life a little simpler subtract 20% from your gross salary and your classroom government will "call it even."

• Gross $_____________
• Amount deducted for taxes $________________
• Net $_______________

Living requirements: You must live in an apartment with your family. (Please find and print the cost of the apartment per month. If your apartment doesn't include garbage pickup, water, parking fees, gas, heating, and lights, please determine your monthly costs for these expenses. (Print documentation that supports your figures.)

If you are married, you can select a profession for your spouse but it must be in the same SES (Socio- economic Status) as your assigned profession. For example, if you are a telemarketer and earn $23,000 a year, your spouse cannot earn more than you. Feel free to select the following:

• Job Title __________________________
• Name ____________________________
• Age ___________

Determine your monthly telephone expenses. (You can decide not to have a phone.)

• Regular phone $______________
• Cell phone $___________

Determine your monthly cable expenses, if you choose to have cable.

• $________________

Determine your automobile/transportation expenses (monthly payment, bus, subway, etc.).

• $__________________

Don't forget insurance. How much will this cost each month?

• $___________________________

Where did you receive this information?

• ___________________________________________________

Calculate your monthly entertainment expenses (movies, games, theme park, CDs, Internet, restaurants, etc.). List the expense for each item.

• $ ___________________
• $ ___________________
• $ ___________________
• $ ___________________

Food expenses:

• $ ___________________

Childcare expenses:

• $ ___________________

Personal Care: (haircuts, manicure, clothing, etc.)

• $ ___________________

Savings: The remainder (if there is any), after all expenses are paid, will go into a savings account. Indicate the amount you will put in your savings account monthly.

• $ ___________________

Situations:

A teacher will need to have access to a computer lab. Every student should have their own computer with access to the Internet and a printer. The teacher should also provide instruction for the students on how to use Excel. Basic formulas for total cell calculation and percentage of total should be used. Total for numerous cells: =SUM(C3:K3) Percentage of total salary =L3/16800 (the cell with the total amount for the month is L3 and the denominator represents the net salary.

Excel also provides quick tutorial lessons that enable students to learn simple formulas. The student should also create a bar graph or pie chart from the information on their Excel spreadsheet. In order to successfully complete this assignment, students must learn to effectively navigate the Internet to find valid resources, learn to use Excel, and think about the purpose of a household budget. To successfully complete the project, students should have five class hours (for fifty minute class periods). The teacher should decide if the days should be consecutive or one class hour per week. Consecutive days are recommended.

Interactions:

The teacher may want to spend time discussing the importance of creating a monthly budget. During the discussion, it is helpful to find statistics about the current state and national jobless rate. Also, locating information about the average credit card debt (approximately $8,000) brings real life to the students. The students will have an opportunity to compare their data at the end of the project. Each student will show their graphs to the class and discuss the success or failure of their budget plan.

The unexpected surprises or curve balls that the teacher creates could have detrimental results on the family budget (this should be brought into consideration when assessing the students work). A grade should not reflect whether or not the student was able to save money but, rather, did they find all of the information needed, successfully create formulas using Excel, complete a graph, and share information with the class.

Tools:

• Computers
• Internet
• Printing
• MS Excel and Word

URLs:

• http://www.salary.com

Projects:

Surprises:

• Surprise curve balls are given to students randomly. Each day of the project, five students were randomly selected. Each surprise was written on a note card and ranged from: unexpected health care expense, throwing a party for a friend (shower), car tabs (license plates) are due, purchase of a wedding gift, street fix-it fees from the city, appliance breaks, car accident (insurance deductible), fire, increase in baby-sitting costs, return to college, increase in income taxes, dinner, illness of a pet.
• There are good surprises, too: win the lottery, inheritance, completion of side job, unexpected discovery, gift of good will, balanced checkbook incorrectly, bank error in your favor, etc.

Remind the students that working with technology take patience and no one is an expert at first. The main goal of the project is to realize the importance of a budget and what the "real world" has in store for the students upon graduation.

Examples of professions that can be assigned to the students:

• First year teacherLiberal Arts degree (work for a non-profit organization)
• Accountant
• Sales (car sales)
• Marketing
• Chemist for Estee Lauder (Aveda)
• Human Resources for large corporation
• Computer Science field
• Engineering
• Math/statistics major (select profession)
• Retail Sales (J.C. Penny)
• McDonalds Manager
• McDonalds Employee
• Telemarketing
• Customer Service
• Legal Secretary
• Housekeeper
• Lawyer
• Student Choice

Standards: (Minnesota Graduation Standards and ISTE)

• Social Studies
• Economics
• Community Interaction

Author(s): B. Smith and C. Nachbar.

Submitted by: The Baby Geeks Collaboratory, Arrowhead "Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology" Project, Dept. of Education, University of Minnesota Duluth.

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