10 Free Financial Literacy Games for High School Students
Student engagement and effectiveness are enhanced when students are taught through the use of games. Game-based learning is particularly helpful when teaching students how to manage their finances since it allows them to learn from their own mistakes. Ten free and well-known games for high school kids to help them learn about managing their funds are provided below.
1. Payback: Payback encourages students to consider how they can achieve academic success while avoiding incurring excessive student debt. “Payback teaches students that it is extremely vital to maintain a healthy balance between academics, work, and social activities while also managing their debt,” says Tony Montgomery, a teacher at an alternative high school in New York City.
2. Spent: Players are challenged to make it through the hardships of low-income existence in Spent. The game, which was created by McKinney to collect money for Urban Ministries of Durham, has become a favourite in financial literacy courses around the country. In Winooski, Vermont, business educator Courtney Poquette says “Spent” helps students “really comprehend some of the incredibly difficult decisions that families who live paycheck to paycheck have to make daily.” Poquette is a member of the National Business Education Association.
3. Financial Football: These two fast-paced, sports-themed, interactive games involve students in quiz bowl-style questions that help them move across the field as the game progresses. 4. Financial Football: In addition to new questions and graphics, both Visa-created games now contain a variety of difficulty levels and game lengths, making it easier for teachers to differentiate in the classroom. Players can choose to compete against the computer or one another.
Fourth, Shady Sam highlights how loan terms can be detrimental to borrowers who do not pay attention to them. Players take on the role of a loan shark in this video game. The greater the amount of interest and fees that clients pay, the higher the score for the game player. The pupils at Mount St. Joseph High School in Maryland, according to Julius Prezelski, a teacher, “understand how the loan game works and how lenders take advantage of people.”
In addition, Amanda Volz, a student at St. Clair High School in Michigan, described STAX as an “interesting, fast-paced interactive game that allows students to experience twenty years of investment in only twenty minutes… and illustrates that index investing is always a winner!” This game elicits the feelings of fear and excitement that investors experience when trading during difficult times. Players can choose to compete against the computer or one another in the game.
6. Money Magic: Money Magic is a game that is intended to teach fundamental budgeting concepts. Enzo, the primary character, reflects the human predisposition to place a high value on immediate fulfilment. Students are challenged to strike a balance between their immediate desires and their long-term goals in this game. The Money Magic game is a favourite of Jacqueline Prester, a high school teacher in Massachusetts who says she likes it “because it provides my pupils with a fun and competitive method to exercise their budgeting abilities in an untraditional atmosphere.”
7. The Payoff: In this game, students take on the role of a video blogger who is preparing for a life-changing competition while also managing money and dealing with unforeseen circumstances. The UI of the game replicates a mobile phone, through which players can check their money balance or browse fictitious websites. The user is required to assist their character in making wise financial decisions in this interactive and experiential game.
A Financial Adventure: 8. Hit the Road: A Financial Adventure With the help of this interactive game, young people will learn the significance of saving and spending money responsibly. Learn how to handle your money properly as you travel across the country on a virtual road trip with your students! They get an understanding of the need of making a budget, spend responsibly, and debt management. Because the game’s instructions are easy, I utilise them in my special education class with students with disabilities.
9. The Uber Game; In this game, students take on the character of a full-time Uber driver who also happens to be a single parent with two children who is struggling to make ends meet. The interactive game, developed by the Financial Times, urges students to confront the realities of life in the gig economy by putting them in their shoes. “It appears to be so simple, doesn’t it?” says Lois Stoll, an experienced Family and Consumer Science teacher from a rural school in Ohio. Simply driving a car and earning money in the gig economy is simple! Consider the consequences of attempting to make your mortgage payment while driving an Uber car for a week. “It’s just not as simple as you think!”
10. Credit Clash: Credit Clash is a game that allows you to learn about credit ratings in a fun and engaging way. At the Gould Academy in Maine, Brett Shifrin witnessed his students discovering that as their credit score improved, the amount of money they had to spend toward future loan payments decreased because they were able to obtain loans at lower interest rates. In his own words, one of his students summed his learnings by noting, “Taking out numerous loans and being able to pay them all greatly increases your credit score.”