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  JA
Finance Park helps students build a foundation for making
intelligent, lifelong, personal financial decisions through
hands-on, realistic site-based experiences. The program
includes in-school, teacher-led activities culminating in a
visit to JA Finance Park and a post-visit assessment.
The key learning objectives listed beside each activity state
the skills and knowledge students will gain.
Unit One: Financial Institutions
Students understand the role of financial institutions and
their services by learning about credit, interest, debit
cards, saving, investing, and stock. They will identify
the advantages and disadvantages of saving, investing, and
using credit. |
Key
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- identify services provided by financial institutions
and understand when/how the services are used.
- explain debit cards and their uses.
- define interest and credit.
- understand the cost of credit.
- explain the advantages and disadvantages of using
credit.
- list the risks and benefits involved in saving and
investing.
- identify the impact interest rates have on
investment value.
- read stock quotes and determine stock value.
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Unit Two: Taxes and My Salary
Students are introduced to different kinds of taxes. They
will identify salaries and benefits and see how deductions
are made from an employee’s paycheck. |
Key
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- define the differences among sales, income, and
property taxes, and the purpose for each type of tax.
- identify the basic principles of Social Security.
- define net monthly income and demonstrate how it is
calculated.
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Unit Three: Budgeting Students experience
creating and maintaining a budget and identify the reasons
for budgeting. Through case studies, they evaluate budget
components and practice making budget decisions. |
Key
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- understand who uses a budget and why.
- identify the components of a successful budget.
- evaluate the effectiveness of sample budgets.
- develop spending plans and practice making budget
decisions.
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Unit Four: Preparing for the Visit Based on a
life situation assigned to each student, they will create
budgets for their salaries, evaluate investments, and
conduct price research for purchases. |
Key
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- create a personal budget.
- calculate net monthly income.
- conduct pricing research.
- assesses investments.
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Unit Five: The Visit Students visit JA
Finance Park and apply classroom learning to making
financial decisions based on their assigned salaries and
life situations. They calculate spending plans and
evaluate investment holdings. |
Key
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- create a typical family budget using hypothetical
life situations.
- use percentages to calculate minimum and maximum
spending allowances.
- evaluate stock holdings.
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Unit Six: After the Visit Students reflect on
their experiences at JA Finance Park. As a class,
they discuss their accomplishments and decisions and then
write an assessment of their day-long visit. Feedback from
parents is included as part of the lesson. |
Key
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- demonstrate integration of classroom instruction to
the simulation experience.
- perform a credit-card and investment assessment.
- conduct self-reflection regarding their visit.
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Supplemental Unit Seven: Career Goals Students
identify and rate their interests, abilities, and work
preferences. They set goals and determine how to achieve
those goals. Students will practice writing a letter of
application to a potential employer. |
Key
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- differentiate among abilities, interests, work
preferences, and values.
- identify their personal characteristics.
- rate their abilities, interests, and work
preferences.
- identify their career interests.
- perform career choice research.
- write a letter of application to a prospective
employer.
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JA Finance Park enhances students’
learning of the following concepts and skills:
Concepts–Banking,
Budgets, Buying, Careers, Choices, Consumers, Credit, Debt,
Exchange, Expenses, Income, Interest rates, Investments,
Money, Opportunity costs, Saving, Scarcity, Social security,
Taxes
Skills–Analysis,
Applying information, Budgeting, Cause and effect, Critical
thinking, Computation, Data collection, Decision-making,
Filling out forms, Following directions, Graphing,
Interpersonal communication, Interpreting data, Listening,
Negotiation, Observation, Planning, Problem-solving, Reading,
Research, Role-playing, Spending, Taking responsibility,
Teamwork
All JA
programs are designed to support the skills and competencies
identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. These
programs also augment school-based, work-based, and connecting
activities for communities with school-to-work initiatives.
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