Starting Investments
Instructional Objectives: To introduce students into the world of savings bonds and other investments to prepare for their financial future.Time
Required: one to two hours
Advance
Preparation: Go to http://savingsbonds.gov/sav/savlearn.htm
Savings Bond Site and download the
lessonsTest the projector setup and make sure everything works before class
arrives. Check your computer to make sure it has shockwave installed, if
not, go to http://shockwave.com
and download their free plugin.
Materials
/ Resources Required: Microsoft Excel, computer connected to a
projector or tvator with a television, screen or a whiteboard or clear
surface to project to.
Vocabulary, Concepts, Focus Questions (and responses), Generalizations, Key Points:
|
SAVE |
MATURITY |
CASH |
All vocabulary can be found at http://savingsbonds.gov/sav/sbkglosa.htm
Activities
– Ask students how much money they would like to have saved 30 years from
now. Have students go to
http://savingsbonds.gov/sav/savcalc2.htm Fun Calculators page,
click on the Savings Planner calculator and calculate how much investment and at what interest
if would take to get to their goal. Explain to students that this activity
is intended to give them an idea to start them in the learning process of
investing for the future. Have students set the interest calculator up in an
Excel spreadsheet.
Extensions
or Follow-up: Go to http://italladdsup.org/
The It All Adds Up website, which not only serves as a review for all major
concepts in this unit, but helps students plan out their financial future.
It is an interactive site which requires shockwave. It contains many quizzes
which students can take and get their response immediately. You may want to
use the spreadsheet students set up and give them certain scenarios to find
out how low it would take them to save a certain amount of money, ie. How
many years would it take you to have a million dollars, if you started out
with $10,000 dollars? If you wanted to have $500,000 saved in 30 years, how
much capital would you have to start with?
Homework:
Students could create a graph from the scenarios created so they could see
how their money grows. As an introduction to this assignment, you may ask
them how long before your money duplicates, triples, use a graph to explain
your answer.
Evaluation: Quiz students on the terms from this lesson. Select 5 terms from the list and have the students define.
Click on the bag of money to return to the Main Menu
TGBTG