Lesson plan

The lesson is based on a 60 minute teaching period and is set at a school that has

a bring your own device policy. The lesson plan will be the introductory lesson to

financial mathematics. Its main aim is to get students engaged and give relevance to

financial mathematics by showing how financial modelling and mathematics affects the

students’ everyday life and can have a huge and lasting impact on their lives for better

or worse. The lesson will follow the following sequence:

 The teacher will introduce the new topic of financial mathematics and make the

link to where this branch of mathematics is used both in personal life and the

corporate/business worlds. The teacher is to ask students how important they

believe financial maths is to them: high, medium or low importance. The teacher

is to record student responses on the board.

 Students will be asked to write down their future goals in regards to education

and life after school. This is asked to get the students thinking about the future.

The exercise is going to assume that students plan to go to university after

school.

 Students will be asked to play a game on their computers. The game is called

‘Game of Life’, based on an excel spreadsheet, where they will complete a ten

year budget one year at a time.

 Once students have worked through the exercise they will be given a balance

sheet. This will display their net worth, the amount they earned, the amount they

spent and what they had to show for it (what tangible items they have in their

possession) as well as any debts they have accumulated along with the interest

paid. Students will be asked to think and answer the following questions:
 1. How well do they think they went financially over the ten-year period?

2. Why did they do well or not so well over this period?

3. What information could they have used to improve their situation at the

end of the ten-year period?

4. How important is financial maths?

 The teacher will bring the class back together to lead a class discussion based on

the four questions listed above.

 Following this, students will start learning about financial maths. The teacher

can then draw links back to this first exercise throughout the topic

Activity overview

Students are to work through an Excel-based computer game called ‘Game of

Life’. This game will take students through a snapshot of their financial life over ten

years after finishing university. Through this game, students will be given a yearly

budget that they will get to spend in five categories: living expenses, housing,

entertainment, transport and savings. Each of these categories has smaller sub-

categories that students will further divide their yearly money into. The way that

students use their money in one year affects the next year’s income. For example, if a

student decides to buy a car instead of using public transport then in the coming years

they will have to pay upkeep (such as servicing and insurance) and usage costs such as

petrol. Students will also be able to get loans to buy things such as cars, houses or

holidays. However, as before, the decision in one year will affect their income for the

following years. Students will also have the opportunity to increase their earnings

through savings and investments. By the end of the game, students will be given a

summary of the ten years of life in the game. This will take the form of a balance sheet
showing total income, summary of assets, total expenses including interest paid and net

worth. (add in a pic of first page)

Rationale

Traditionally financial maths is taught in schools by individually showing the

concepts and having students learn the formula used to solve a focused problem. The

link to students’ everyday life and where they will encounter the concept is not really

defined or it is only indicated through an abstract example or hinted at by the end of the

lesson. This learning activity varies significantly from the traditional approach by

introducing the topic of financial maths and its full application at the beginning of the

topic. By taking this approach students begin with an overall view of the topic and its

application. By combining this overall view with real world application and relevance of

their own personal situation and decisions, students will gain an understanding of how

important this topic is to their personal lives, helping to prepare students for the real

world. This is one of the mathematics most important aims (Reinholz, 2016).

This method of introducing the topic of financial mathematics is an extremely

useful teaching strategy as it meets many of the High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS)

(Department of education and training [DET], 2017). The HITS teaching strategies have

been developed through extensive research and are proven to improve students’

learning. This learning activity gives students multiple exposures and encourages them

to question. This task is the first holistic exposure students will have to financial

mathematics in the stage 6 advanced course and as the topic progresses, students will

be given multiple exposures to the different concepts, especially if a budget assignment

is introduced into the assessment schedule. The task gets students questioning their
decisions by forcing them to come face-to-face with the consequences of their decisions

throughout the exercise.

The task is also designed to fit within the aspects of the Quality Teaching

Framework (QTF) (Department of education and training, 2003). It does this by

incorporating the following elements into the task engagement: relevance, worked

examples and connectedness. By making the task about the students’ personal lives

after university, the students will feel a level of relevance to the task promoting

engagement in the task from the students. The task also shows students worked real

world examples and applications of the financial mathematics topic they are about to

study. The students can be drawn back to the initial task throughout the topic showing

students the worked examples and bringing relevance to each section. Finally the task

will promote connectedness as the students will develop meaning for the topic that

exists outside the classroom and will show students situations they will confront

outside of school.

Throughout the topic, the concept of financial maths and financial literacy is

promoted. The focus of the topic is to develop students’ ability to make informed

financial decisions and be aware of the consequences of their decisions (Board of

Studies NSW, 2017). In order to maintain this focus, financial literacy as well as the

mathematics needs to be taught to students. This is where the initial modelling game is

able to help students develop an understanding of financial decisions and the

consequences of such decisions. The aim for the topic is to develop two things, first the

students’ ability to do and apply the maths but also to develop a true understanding of
financial maths and its effect on our lives. To achieve this during each section of the

financial mathematics topic, the initial task will be used as a reference to help students

understand the mathematical principle, how this is applied to real world situations, how

this can benefit them or disadvantage them in their lives and to overall improve their

financial literacy. This ability for students to develop financial literacy and apply

mathematics to the real world influences and underpins many aspects of personal, civic

and work lives for students’ future lives (Geiger, 2018). An inability to use financial

mathematics limits an individual’s social well-being and financial security

(Paulos, 1990).

Additionally to aid in students’ understanding of financial mathematics and to

develop their financial literacy, an assessment task based around the topic would

strengthen students’ understanding and help to strengthen the focus of the topic. This

task would be for students to create their own financial plan. By embedding financial

mathematics into meaningful assessment tasks, the topic and concepts are enriched

developing a deeper understanding and broadening students’ financial literacy

(Stillman, 2004). This assessment task links well with the outcomes in the syllabus

(Board of Studies NSW, 2017). Students will solve problems about their financial

situation (MA12-2), use technology to model concepts and produce solutions to

problems (MA12-9), create solutions to problems using arithmetic and geometric

sequences and series (MA12-4) and be able to develop arguments to justify their

decisions and use of concepts (MA12-10).

This task will link to the Financial Mathematics topic in the Stage 6 Mathematics

Advanced Syllabus (Board of Studies NSW, 2017). The topic focus is centred around
students developing their financial literacy and improving their ability to manage

personal finances prudently and under the consequences of their decisions. The task

presented to the students is aimed at achieving and setting up this focus for financial

maths outlined in the curriculum. It is designed to show students the traps and

advantages of understanding their personal finances and is aimed at getting students

engaged in the topic.

By using the modelling game at the beginning of the topic, students are exposed

to modelling of financial problems and start to develop reasoning to make informed

decisions about their personal finances (MA12-2).

The task exposes students to all aspects of financial modelling outlined in the

curriculum from modelling loans and investments to discovering arithmetic and

geometric sequences and series and their applications in financial maths. Furthermore

the task exposes students to ICT tools that they can use to develop their own financial

model later in their life or in assignments.

In order to teach financial mathematics there needs to be a big focus on

modelling concepts such as compound interest, loans or arithmetic and geometric

sequence and series. To enable students to model these easily and to provide valuable

ICT skills, the modelling will be done using computer programs such as Excel or Matlab.

The benefit of this is that students would already be familiar with these programs and

students can easily see the results of their modelling graphically. Research suggests that
technology can offer opportunities for students to collect and analysis data, make links

between graphical and numerical relationships allowing them to communicate and

analyse their mathematical thinking (Hennessy, Fung, & Scanlon, 2001). However by

just shifting the work to computers may not have a positive effect if the personal

teaching philosophy of the teacher is not geared towards utilising computers in the

classroom (Goos & Bennison, 2008).

 References

Board of Studies NSW. (2017). NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics

Advanced Stage 6 Syllabus

Department of education and training. (2003). A classroom practice guide. Retrieved

from http://mscplc.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/0/8/4808031/

quality_teaching_guide.pdf

Department of education and training.(2017).High Impact Teaching Strategies:

Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from https://www.education.

vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/support/highimpactteachstrat.pdf

Goos, M., & Bennison, A. (2008). Surveying the technology landscape:

Teachers’ use of technology in secondary mathematics

classrooms. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 20(3), 102-130.

Geiger, V., Stillman, G., Brown, J., Galbriath, P., & Niss, M. (2018). Using

mathematics to solve real world problems: The role of

enablers. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 30(1), 7-19.

Hennessy, S., Fung, P., & Scanlon, E. (2001).

activity. International Journal of Mathematical Education in

Science and Technology, 32(2), 267-290.

Paulos, J. (1990). Innumeracy : Mathematical illiteracy and its consequences.

New York: Hill and Wang

Reinholz, D. (2016). Developing mathematical practices through reflection

cycles. Mathematics Education Research Journal,28(3), 441-455.

Stillman, G. (2004). Strategies employed by upper secondary students for

overcoming or exploiting conditions affecting accessibility of applications

tasks. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 16(1), 41-71.