Financial Education Through Mathematics and IT Curricula: Pocket Money Management

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2013

Mathematics and IT classes in the Bulgarian school provide various opportunities for developing students’ logical, mathematical, and technological thinking. Being an important part of mathematical literacy, financial literacy can be systematically built in the frame of national mathematics and IT curricula. Following that objective, exemplary word problems have been designed to make middle and high school students discover elementary truths in finances. Not only is their topic of managing pocket money attractive to both students and parents, but their very content impels the students to reason out real life financial situations. Using spreadsheets for calculations and representations helps the students to experience how compound interest works. Such practice improves their planning and decision-making skills in finances and is highly proactive towards their financial responsibility. Work on word problems of the kind is also beneficial to the students from the vocational schools of banking and finances. It provides them with valuable experience for their future internship and jobs.

Association for the Development of the Information Society, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics Bulgarian Academy of Sciences