The Classroom Mini-Economy is a resource that allows teachers to create a fully functional economy, right in their own classroom. The program is a simulation that closely mirrors the every day activities of the United States economy, one that allows students to actively take part in it, rather than merely observe from the outside.
Educators using the Classroom Mini-Economy kit will be able to set up a real-world like economy, created and managed by students who are tasked with the challenge of both earning and spending classroom currency for products produced by simulation businesses. Students will additionally apply for jobs, run businesses, pay taxes, and make investments, just as they must do later in life.
Suitable for students K-8, the Mini-Economy is hands on, and goes beyond merely doing schoolwork, children are thrust into a real life-like model of the economic world, and learn through experience, as opposed to merely learning terms and taking tests on them.
The Mini-Economy provides students with day-to-day experience of managing money, a skill that they will eventually put to good use on a consistent basis throughout their adult lives. Students experience first hand a true circular economy, as they must work for their currency and then spend it on certain goods, returning the money to the economy. Students are further encouraged to participate both in the Mini-Economy, and in the classroom, as they are rewarded for their attention and efforts in the form of Mini-Economy currency.
The Mini-Economy is not just education in economics; it is cross-training for a number of different disciplines, including mathematics, reading, writing, and science, as students:
- Keep budgets
- Conduct store transactions
- Calculate income and keep earnings records
- Compute between various exchange rates
- Figure and pay taxes
- Write and submit job application letters
- Compose advertisements to sell products
- Write essays on Mini-Economy themes
- Relate themes learned through Mini-Economy activities to outside literature
- Explore the differences between Pure and Applied Science, and how ideas become marketable products
- Learn about environmental issues, and how they affect economics
- Become informed on energy policies
- Balance the concepts of cost vs. benefit
The Mini-Economy manual includes teacher primers and aids, student worksheets, and more. Contact us today for information on how to purchase the full Classroom Mini-Economy kit.