Budgeting for Independence

A differentiated math activity my students completed this year was our Budget Project where students simulated living on their own and making real money decisions.

Students first came up with a brainstormed list of expenses they would have to pay if they lived on their own. Then they were given a fixed monthly income and asked to adjust their expenses accordingly. After this warm-up lesson, we begin the realthing.

Each group randomly selects an education level (ranging 8^th grade graduate up to PhD) which has an income level associated with it (based on national average monthly income data). Each group then gets a list of possible options for their housing, transportation, communication, food, and other expenses. They have to accomplish several goals:

• Create a budget that includes all necessary living expenses without going over their monthly income,
• Include any extra expenses they can afford,
• Calculate taxes, electricity and gas, insurance, and other bills (given as percentages; for example electricity is 10% of their housing costs, gas is 15% of their car costs, etc.)
• Create a graph displays their major cost categories (housing, food, entertainment, etc.)
• Develop a written analysis to explain their decisions.
• Create a poster to display all aspects of their project.
• Deliver a presentation of their budget and field questions from the audience.
• Revise their decisions based on teacher and peer comments.
• Complete a self and peer analysis on their group contributions.

Students enjoyed this activity because it related to the real world and gave them the opportunity to step into an adults’ shoes and make decisions. They also quickly learned how to prioritize, how to apply percentage lessons from earlier in the year, and how to associate education with income level.

There is a great deal of differentiation in this just by looking at the goals, each of which play to a different strength. Everyone can have an opinion on decision making. There are options for strong mathematicians, artists, graph-creators, presenters, and writers, so that everyone can play to their own strength. There are also varying levels of difficulty based on how much income each group received!

The end result of this project was very impressive, far beyond what I expected. Their creativity and ability to apply math skills they learned throughout the year were great!