- The latest version of our Budgeting Game, where students manage money in a simulated year as a young adult
- Our enhanced Stock Game, where students build and manage a portfolio
- Our lessons and activities, like our stock comparison tool and income tax activites
- And Certificates of Achievement students can earn by completing optional lessons.
We host this challenge every April to give a chance for all schools a chance to participate – we’re expecting this year to be bigger than ever!
The challenge has registration open now at https://www.personalfinancelab.com/financial-literacy-challenge/ – the challenge begins on April 2, and ends on May 3. Teachers who register earlier can log in earlier with their students for access to tutorials and extra resources.
What’s the impact this has had/or you hope it will have on moving financial literacy forward?
Most of the students and teachers who use our games and simulations are part of a personal finance class already, and teachers can use us to bring personal finance topics more into focus. But we offer the free April challenge every year so every student and teacher has the opportunity to take part – even if they don’t normally have time during the semester (or even students who aren’t part of any personal finance class at all). We get a lot of enthusiasm from students where the whole school participates and they previously had no interest in personal finance at all – but afterwards it is the first class they sign up for next Fall.
This means participation isn’t just limited to personal finance and economics classes – the whole school can participate, and teachers are encouraged to invite other classes!
How do we learn more?
Our website –www.personalfinancelab.com has more information about how teachers can sign up. The April challenge is completely free, and no personally-identifiable information is collected from students. Since it is online, students can participate as part of a class activity, or on their own at home. We’re also giving away prizes to both students and their teachers based on performance in the games, and every student has the option to earn the Certificate of Completion by finishing optional personal finance lessons.
How can schools get involved?
Teachers can sign up their class for free at https://www.personalfinancelab.com/financial-literacy-challenge/.
Once a teacher signs up, they’ll get:
- Anonymous logins to distribute to their students so they can participate
- An email welcome series with more information about the challenge and how it works
- Our Teacher Packets outlining the “nuts and bolts” of the budgeting game and the stock game
When students log in, we also have an onboarding series built-in to help them get started in less than 10 minutes. Students also can complete our extra “supplemental” lessons covering the full course of Financial Literacy – students who complete all lessons before May 31 can download a Certificate of Completion.
We have students grades 5-12 participate every year, and we are looking forward to the April competition!
Tell us more about your organization.
PersonalFinanceLab is the high school version of Stock-Trak. We’ve been working with high schools and universities since 1990 to ensure every student has exposure to the world of investing and personal financial management before they go off into the “real world”. Around 1,000,000 students improve their understanding of personal finance and investing through one of our platforms every year – and we’re helping more students every year!