Middle Schools

Personal Economics® helps students assess their personal skills and interests, explore career options, learn job-hunting skills, and discover the value of an education. They also learn about budgets, personal and family financial management, and the use of credit.

Activity One: Marketing Yourself: The students recognize their role in the U.S. market system.

Activity Two: Identifying Your Skills and Interests: The students identify personal skills and interests, and relate them to various careers.

Activity Three: Job Opportunities: The students discover the steps involved in finding a job. They read employment ads, and practice filling out a job application. They discuss the value of jobs and volunteer experiences to their future career plans.

Activity Four: Job Interviews: The students discuss the characteristics employers want in potential employees, especially those characteristics that go beyond the basic knowledge and skills needed to perform the job. They observe and evaluate successful and unsuccessful interviews, and they review a list of interviewing suggestions.

Activity Five: Personal Budgeting: The students work in small groups and use hypothetical information to develop a personal budget for a teen-ager. They learn the reasons for creating a budget and the basic features and characteristics of all budgets.

Activity Six: Family Finances: The students discuss financial planning and budgeting. They create a budget in which they establish priorities, and estimate costs based upon expected income and expenses.

Activity Seven: Paying the Bills: The students are introduced to financial institutions. They discuss the use of checking accounts, and practice writing checks.

Activity Eight: Using Credit Wisely: The students discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using credit to make everyday purchases. In small groups, the students examine a credit card statement.

Activity Nine: Stock Market: In the first of two activities about the stock market, the students explore the stock market as a way to add value to the money they have made in the marketplace.

Activity Ten: Analyzing Your Investments: The students sell their stock from the previous activity and determine whether they made or lost money.

Skills - Analyzing information, Analyzing situations, Budgeting, Building self-esteem, Charting, Conceptualizing and designing, Critical thinking, Decision making, Filling out forms, Following directions, Formulating a plan, Interpreting information, Interviewing, Listening responsively, Making observations, Mathematical interpretation and computation, Problem solving, Role playing, Teamwork.

Personal Economics is a series of eight to 10 activities and is recommended for students in the middle grades. Materials are packaged in a self-contained kit that includes detailed activity plans for the volunteer and workbooks for 32 students.

Enterprise in Action® helps students understand the principal characteristics of the United States economic system and the role of business in it. The activities reinforce economic concepts taught in U.S. history, state history, and civics courses. Students learn the steps in organizing a business, as well as producing and marketing a product. They also study the social responsibilities of businesses, and the role of government in the U.S. economy.

The Economics of Staying in School® comprises several activities to help students understand the cost of leaving school early and the benefits of obtaining an education. They explore their personal skills and interests, various career opportunities, personal budgeting, and the consequences of the decisions they make. They are encouraged to define what success means for them individually, and to set goals to attain it.

Skills- Budgeting, Careers, Choices, Employment, Expenses, Income, Job market, Opportunity costs, Skills, Success, Taxes, Trade-offs, Work, Analyzing information, Building self-esteem, Critical thinking, Decision making, Evaluating experiences, Following directions, Gathering data, Giving reports, Goal setting, Interpreting data, Mathematical interpretation and computation, Summarizing, Teamwork.

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