ICT Tip: Real-life budgeting activities for a math class

7 Aug

Quick overview: Budgeting and savings activities for a “real-life” situation in a math class.

How can this be used in the classroom? If you are looking for a “real-life” situation activity in your math class (or hoping to kick start a Learning Situation) then I may have a useful and easy to use ICT suggestion. Using the Vancity HomeBudget Analysis website (www.tinyurl.com/vancity-homebudget) your students can input their expenses and income and obtain a visual breakdown of all their expenses. For students not currently working, it can also be used to compare potential jobs with different salaries compared to their current expenses, as seen in the screen caputre below:

Anything more? For teachers who want to take things one step further, you may also want to visit the MyCalculators.com “Savings-Investment Calculator” (http://tinyurl.com/6sx68m) website with your students. Using this calculator, your students can see how much of a return they’ll get from depositing regular contributions into their savings account. Variables can be changed such as intrest rate, years to invest, or the frequency of contributions. I should note that while I find this page isn’t very flashy, it gets the point across well. It can be used if you wish to cover more in-depth topics on savings and investments.