Students Learn Power of Functional Financing Through Project Based Learning

When it comes to education, financial education is some of the most practical curriculum being taught. Bringing together the terminology alongside how it affects real-world purchases makes learning economics concepts easier for students to digest. That’s why LaRue County teacher Molly Howell is applying project-based learning to her Algebra 1 classroom.

Howell’s math students used percentages, interests, and payment structures to discuss how to figure out down payments on major purchases and how to effectively pay them off.

“What was really neat was that some kids truly made this their own by doing a tractor payment, or a lawnmower payment, and someone even did a guitar payment,” she said.

That practical application of skills to real-world scenarios is exactly why LaRue County Schools is promoting Project-Based Learning as part of its educational goals. Students like Howell’s can learn how the curriculum applies to their daily lives.

Howell saw the power of bringing PBL to her students' desks.

“Engagement is at an all-time high when kids are able to apply math to something that actually interests them and makes them feel like it actually matters,” she said.

She mentioned that one student even applied the lesson to her personal finances, and it inspired that student to strategize a major purchase.

“I will never forget that one of my students last year was so invested that she and her parents actually talked on the phone about how much they would give her towards a down payment and how much she needed to save up for herself,” Howell said. “After that conversation, she was literally walking out of class and telling one of her best friends from another class that she was buying a car.”

While many adults might take mathematical reasoning for granted now, most of us have benefitted from these types of projects throughout our lives. Solving for unknowns — and planning around those unknowns — are critical parts of both math and financial literacy.

“Adults may not sit down and actually write out an equation or draw up a graph in everyday life, but they do have to solve for so many unknowns and that is a huge part of what Algebra 1 is,” Howell said. “Putting students in situations where they experience it now better prepares them to do it when it is the ‘real deal.’”