Collection
Math in the Real World

Many economics and personal finance concepts overlap with math curriculum, but economics and personal finance teachers are not trained to teach complex calculations and formulas, and math teachers may not focus on the personal finance and economic applications. A new CEE resource, Math in the Real World, brings together the expertise of math teachers and economics teachers to create interdisciplinary lessons that teach important personal finance and economic concepts in the context of math lessons.

Lesson

Grades 9-12

Compound Interest

In this personal finance lesson, students will compare simple and compound interest on savings.
Key Concepts: Interest, Saving
60 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

Distribution of Income

Students will learn how productivity and government policy influences the distribution of income and create and analyze Lorenz curves and...
Key Concepts: Distribution of Income, Income Distribution, Productivity
90 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

Spending Multipliers

In this personal finance lesson, students will learn spending multiplier and the marginal propensity of consuming and saving.
Key Concepts: Aggregate Demand, Balance of Trade and Balance of Payments, Consumers…
60 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

Rates of Change

In this personal finance lesson, students will analyze the relationship between differing costs using the concept of slopes.
Key Concepts: Business Costs and Revenues, Profit
60 mins
Lesson

Grades 9-12

Exchange Rates

Students describe and identify where certain items they own come from and the approximate price of these items. They learn...
Key Concepts: Depreciation of a Currency, Foreign Exchange
60 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

Deriving Marginalism

In this personal finance lesson, students will make a connection between derivatives and marginalism.
Key Concepts: Business Costs and Revenues, Profit
90 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

Using Slope to Compute Opportunity Cost

In this personal finance lesson, students will investigate opportunity cost by using slope.
Key Concepts: Decision Making/Cost-Benefit Analysis, Goods and Services
60 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

How Expensive are Payday Loans?

In this personal finance lesson, students will learn how a payday loan works.
Key Concepts: Credit, Interest
60 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

Break-Even Analysis

In this personal finance lesson, students will use breakeven analysis formula to analyze investment options.
Key Concepts: Business Costs and Revenues, Goods and Services, Profit
70 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

When Graphs Mislead Us - Analyzing GDP

Students practice interpreting and drawing GDP graphs as they analyze why some data can be deceiving.
Key Concepts: Economic Development, Fiscal Policy, GDP
90 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 9-12

Earning Credit

In this personal finance lesson, students will learn to compound interest and amortization to calculate the cost of a car.
Key Concepts: Credit, Interest, Risk and Return
90 mins
Lesson

Grades 9-12

How is Our Economy Doing?

Students learn the meaning and measurement of six important economic indicators and use the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank National...
Key Concepts: Balance of Trade and Balance of Payments, Credit, Employment and Unemployment…
Lesson

NearPod Version Available

Grades 6-8

It Pays to Stay in School

In this personal finance lesson, students will analyze and develop stay-in-school incentive programs for a group of students.
Key Concepts: Balance of Trade and Balance of Payments, Division of Labor/Specialization, Incentives
60 mins
Lesson

Nearpod version available

Grades 6-8

Why Adopt a Highway?

In this personal finance lesson, students will learn about the successful Adopt-a-Highway program.
Key Concepts: Decision Making/Cost-Benefit Analysis, Market Structures, Roles of Government
60 mins
Lesson

Grades 9-12

Multipliers and the Mystery of the Magic Money

Students learn about the purpose of the reserve requirement, how money is "created" in the economy through fractional reserves, and...
Key Concepts: Economic Institutions, Fiscal Policy, Markets and Prices
Lesson

Grades 9-12

Unemployment in My Hometown

Students use the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to track unemployment rates for their community, and after researching information about...
Key Concepts: Employment and Unemployment
Lesson

Activity

Grades 9-12

Break-Even Analysis Activity

This interactive graphs the break-even point using the equation, Breakeven Quantity (BEQ) = Fixed Costs / (Total Revenue per Job...
Key Concepts: Decision Making/Cost-Benefit Analysis, Goods and Services, Profit
Activity

Grades 9-12

Taxes and Income

This interactive can be used to review progressive, regressive and proportional taxes. Refer to the Math in the Real World...
Key Concepts: Income Distribution
Activity

Grades 9-12

Income Distribution

Students create an income distribution for a fictitious country to learn about quintiles. The interactive calculates the median and mean...
Key Concepts: Distribution of Income, GDP, Income Distribution
Activity

Calculator

Grades 6-8, 9-12

Exchange Rate Calculator

Exchange rate calculator which displays the amount of expenses in USD Today and USD Two Months Ago. Students can use...
Key Concepts: Foreign Exchange
Calculator