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Brandon Valley Middle School students complete Junior Achievement Finance Park simulation
Summary
Seventh- and eighth-grade students in an elective LINX learning class participated in Junior Achievement's Finance Park simulation to practice budgeting, career planning and financial decision-making; teachers and district officials said volunteers and community partners were key to the experience.
Mallory Hoosier, a seventh- and eighth-grade LINX learning teacher at Brandon Valley Middle School, told the Brandon Valley School District 49-2 Board of Education that students took part in Junior Achievement’s Finance Park simulation this spring to practice budgeting and other personal-finance skills.
Hoosier said students spent about five hours at a JA event that runs through roughly 20 stations. Each student received an iPad that assigned a virtual life—an avatar, family size and a career—and students made spending and savings choices at each station. Hoosier said volunteers staffed stations and helped students work through options such as mortgages and insurance.
“The volunteers were super awesome, very, very patient,” Hoosier said. She added that the JA staff provided teaching materials and extension activities the district could use. Hoosier read a reflection from a student that said, “I didn't realize the amount of money that is spent just to keep me alive,” which she used to underline how the simulation prompted conversation between students and their guardians.
Hoosier described the class that used the program as an elective called LINX learning, designed to teach students decision-making and lifelong-learning skills. She said the unit covers four main topics—income (including careers), savings and investing, risk management and budgeting—and that most of the JA session emphasizes budgeting. Hoosier said she has used the program with one semester’s group already and expected the second-semester group to attend the simulation the following week.
Board members asked whether LINX learning is an elective; Hoosier confirmed it is elective and estimated roughly 200 students have taken the class across the middle school. Several board members and administrators praised the program and JA volunteers for creating a positive learning environment and for reinforcing career and financial literacy connections across grade levels.
Hoosier said JA provides two teaching routes—traditional and a project-based route—that could allow the district to expand classroom work tied to the simulation. She recommended the district consider additional integration between career-cluster lessons and extended financial-literacy instruction.
The presentation occurred during the board’s oral reports; there was no formal action tied to the Finance Park presentation.
