ECDC Lesson Activity

Failed Attempt: My partner and I planned to teach fractions using pizza slices and toppings. For this lesson, students would build fractions by decorating an embroidered cheese pizza with toppings and compare fractions using inequalities. My partner and I would give each student and different fraction and from there they must construct it and then compare them using <,=,>.  For our pizza fraction activity, several problems with the embroider machine occurred, ultimately leading us to throw away the entire idea and start all over. After three full days of trying to get the embroidery machine to work, it never did. The bobbin and the thread kept messing up, not many staff members were well educated on the embroidery machine. So our three days of work had nothing to show for.

Financial Literacy lesson Activity

Luckily my partner and I were able to come up with a new idea using her Cricut from home. With our new activity, we were able to teach a lesson to three different groups about financial literacy. 

TEKS: 10 a, b, c, d, e - Personal financial literacy. The student applies mathematical process standards to manage one's financial resources effectively for lifetime financial security. The student is expected to: distinguish between fixed and variable expenses; calculate profit in a given situation; compare the advantages and disadvantages of various savings options; describe how to allocate a weekly allowance among spending; saving, including for college; and sharing; and describe the basic purpose of financial institutions, including keeping money safe, borrowing money, and lending.

Activity

Ultimately for this activity, we would be playing the game of life using fake money created by the Cricut for our lesson. Students first are asked what money is? Is money is earned? If the answer is yes then how do we earn money? Once we have established a basic idea of what money is we are ready to play the game. We start off by rolling a dice and whichever number it lands on is the numbered task card they get. (Task cards are ways the students can earn money.) The task card will ask a question, each task card has a certain amount of money the student will earn by getting the problem right. Now that students have completed a task card and have collected their prize money they now will decide the safest place to store money. We give them an option between a piggy bank or a bank account. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both and continue on. Now each student rolls for a weekly allowance. Since this is a weekly allowance they must determine how much allowance they will have by the end of the month. After storing their allowance money, we ask them if they know a difference between a fixed and variable expense. A fixed expense is like a monthly payment, we ask the students if they can provide us examples of a fixed expense. A variable expense is when a price of an item is always different such as clothes, food, toys, etc. We ask students if they can think of other variable expenses. With the money they have, they are able to decide which iPhone they want but they must pay part of the monthly bill. Some students will decide on the most expensive and others will decide on the more affordable ones. Once they have a better understanding of what a fixed variable is, we move on to using a giftshop to demonstrate a variable expense. At a gift shop, there are hundreds of items at completely different prices. Students have the option from three different items to buy what they want using the money they have earned. Once they have bought the item they now have a better understanding of what a variable expense is.  Students are then given scenarios of what it's like to own a business and how to calculate profit. If students have any leftover money they are able to purchase an item made from the Cricut that they can take home with them. (Click the activ
ity link for a more in-depth explanation.) 

My Experience 

For our first group, the students were very quiet and shy. We were able to complete most of the game but had to stop due to the time limit. We got to play up until the fixed and variable game expense activity. After the first group, we realized that we created more materials than we needed and learned that ways never go the way you plan. For our second and third groups, they were both energetic and talkative. We were able to tweak our lesson plan a little bit. The kids mainly in these two groups focused on the Cricut. They played a little bit of the game and were able to earn enough money to buy something made by the Cricut. 

ISTE standards

4b: Design authentic learning activities that ask students to leverage a design process to solve problems with awareness of technical and human constraints and defend their design choices.

2c: Choose teaching approaches that

3c: Plan collaboratively with other educators to create learning activities that cross disciplines to strengthen student understanding of CT and CS concepts and transfer application of knowledge in new contexts.

5a: Evaluate and use CS and CT curricula, resources and tools that account for learner variability to meet the needs of all students.