11 Videos for Economic Lessons
Spent An online game designed to teach players about the challenges of living on minimum wage (or slightly higher) employment. Players begin by selecting a job which will provide the wages they have to survive on for a month. Then throughout the game players are confronted with challenges that they have to handle by making an "either or" choice. After each choice the player's account balance is adjusted. In addition to the change in the player's balance sheet, each choice is followed by an explanation of consequence of the choice made.
Living on a Minimum Wage (7-12) Not not an online simulation, but worthwhile
Economics Games A wide variety of simulations that include Spent, Sweatshop, Third World Famer
Game Changer some examples are Spent, Lottery of Life
BM CityOne Suitable for: Year 7-12
CityOne offers players the opportunity to optimize banking, retail, energy and water solutions via an online, sim-style game in which the player is tasked with guiding industries within a city through a series of missions. Players will make decisions to improve the city by attaining revenue and profit goals, increasing customers’ and citizens’ satisfaction, and making the environment greener with a limited budget. In parallel, players will learn how the components of business process management, service reuse, cloud and collaborative technologies make organizations in the city system more agile.
Trading Around the World (middle school)
An economics game hosted on the International Monetary Fund's website. The object of the game is to provide students with knowledge of the variables affecting international trade. Students experience the impact of each variable by playing the game as a representative of a country or region that is trying to buy or sell resources. The overall object of the game is to accumulate cash through buying and selling natural resources.
Living on a Minimum Wage (7-12) Not not an online simulation, but worthwhile
Practical Money Skills hosts a series of eight online games designed to teach students some money management skills. One of the games that is timely considering that the Super Bowl is just a few days away is Financial Football. Financial Football has students answer questions about budgets, savings, and spending to move their football teams down the field against another team. The games use real NFL team logos. Financial Football takes at least twenty minutes to play.
Spent is an online game designed to teach players about the challenges of living on minimum wage (or slightly higher) employment. Players begin by selecting a job which will provide the wages they have to survive on for a month. Then throughout the game players are confronted with challenges that they have to handle by making an "either or" choice. After each choice the player's account balance is adjusted. In addition to the change in the player's balance sheet, each choice is followed by an explanation of consequence of the choice made.
The Living Wage Calculator The purpose of the Living Wage Calculator is to provide a snapshot of what it actually costs to survive in counties and cities in the United States. The Living Wage Calculator shows the differences between minimum wages and minimum living wages for each county and some cities in the U.S. The calculator accounts for eight different household scenarios from single adult to two adults and three children living in the same household.
Ayiti - The Cost of Life
Classroom support materials for Ayiti - developed by UNICEF
A role-playing video game in which the player assumes the roles of family members living in rural Haiti. Over the course of the game, the player must choose among and balance various goals, such as achieving education, making money, staying healthy, and maintaining happiness while encountering unexpected events. The player must make many decisions that contribute to or detract from achieving his or her chosen goals.
Third World Farmer
UN World Food Force (must download full game)
Food Force 2
One Hen – Microfinance for Kids
Banzai A Financial Literacy Tool gr. 8-12 Life skill financial scenarios for students to work through.
Money Metropolis is hosted on Practical Money Skills. In the game students choose savings goals then navigate their way through a virtual town to earn money toward those goals. games require students to have some prior knowledge of financial basics. These games could be good review activities after a lesson that you teach about budgeting, saving, borrowing, and spending.
Trade gr. 5-8 Play and learn about trade theory
Economics Games (gr. 3-8) Money, Investing, Federal Reserve and more
BizEd is a great resource for economics lessons and virtual field trips. I started using BizEd a few years ago and it has been a valuable resource to me ever since. BizEd is a UK based website so some of the lessons and activities have to be manipulated a little bit for use in US classrooms, but the overall value of activities is fantastic. Some of the highlights for teachers are frequently updated lesson plans, a comprehensive glossary of terms, slide shows available for download, and fantastic virtual field trips.
SimCEO is an entirely online simulation where participants create companies, research each other’s companies online, buy/sell other company’s shares and reacting to daily news posting that can affect the market.
Minyan Land is a free virtual world environment designed to teach kids about budgeting their money. Each player starts out in Minyan Land with $50,000 cash and a condo valued at $50,000. In Minyan Land players can invest their money, spend their money, and complete tasks to earn more money.
Secret Millionaires Club is a series of animated videos and games designed to help kids learn the basics of business creation, management, and finance. The Secret Millionaires Club contains twenty-six animated videos featuring Warren Buffett talking with kids. The videos cover topics like debt, supply and demand, marketing, and consumer confidence in products. After watching the video your students can play two games to test their understanding of the content they've watched.
Gazillionaire III- Gazillionaire is the award-winning simulation game. It puts the player in charge of a trading ship in a fun universe filled with great characters. This a simple, classroom appropriate game that can easily be the basis for many lessons on resource management, economics, planning and collaboration. (Windows only)
The Stock Market Game
SMG2000, the stock market game (4-12) This World Wide Web (WWW) site is designed to help students in grades 4 to 12 understand the stock market, the costs and benefits involved in decision making, and the sources and uses of capital and other related economic concepts
Online Stock Market Trading Simulation
The Investment Stock Game
Invest smart (9-12) This site contains an interactive stock market simulation in which high school classes can use a $100,000 fantasy money account to invest in the stock market or mutual funds. This market simulation is a hands-on tool.
Money Games gr. 8-12 Games on topics like credit cards, budgeting, trade-offs ...
A Web-based Interactive Stock Market Learning Project for K-12 www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/edu/RSE/RSEyellow/gnb.html
Spent Get to make tough economic decisions that real working class families have to make. See the immediate results of your decisions
Rich Kid Smart gr. K- 12 All lessons are taught by Toki using four financial games. The Mint Games that are built around earning, saving, spending, and giving. Lessons on how money moves are also imparted in an easy to grasp language. With a basic understanding, you can play the quizzes and calculator games like the Be Your Own Boss Challenge on the website.Planet Orange gr. 1-6 interactive financial game Join Cedric and Amy as they help you navigate the deep reaches of space and learn all about earning, spending, saving and investing. The game involves activities that focus on different features of money and the choices you have to make for completing the mission.
The Stock Market Game - The Stock Market Game is an education program for Grades 4-12, college students, and adults. SMG is the original game in USA since 1977. Teams receive $100,000 which they invest over a 10 week period. The game can be played over the Internet or by mail.
Stock Market It is the next best thing to spending $500,000.00. Begin with the Crews Stock Market Handbook.
Pay Credit When Credit is Due - (gr 7-12) Students investigate the fundamentals of credit including credit cards, credit ratings and credit management.
Invest in Yourself (gr 7-12) Students learn personal financial management strategies based on budgeting and theoretical concepts involved with budgeting and financial management, including income, expenses, savings, and debt. Students watch a video segment from the PBS series What's Up in Finance? They then complete hands-on activities to create three different saving and spending scenarios based on their own lives and expenses. After completing these activities, students use an online interactive game to apply the financial management concepts and strategies they have learned.
Entrepreneurship: HotShot Business ( gr 2-5)Full-featured business simulation for younger students.
Entrepreneurship: Industry Player (gr. 9-12) Realistic online business simulation game in which entrepreneurs manage their own corporation.
Entrepreneurship: IndustryMasters ( gr. 9-12) Develops entrepreneurial and strategic management skills.
Cartoon on international trade gr 6-12 The video is appropriate as an introduction to the topic for middle school and high school students. After watching the video on international trade have your students put their new knowledge to use in Trading Around the World from the International Monetary Fund. The object of the game is to provide students with knowledge of the variables affecting international trade. Students experience the impact of each variable by playing the game as a representative of a country or region that is trying to buy or sell resources. The overall object of the game is to accumulate cash through buying and selling natural resources.