Featured Engagement Activities
Each Nucleus course features engagement-optimized activities, including real-world simulations, real technology tools, and collaborative group activities in a gamified classroom setting. Highlights of some of our engaging activities for the Financial Literacy course include:
Stock Simulator
In this real world stock simulator, students practice building a stock portfolio by investing simulator money into various stocks. Students research the companies, decide where they’d like to invest, and determine which of their stocks to buy and sell. Students have a blast as they learn how to read changes in stock prices, and track the value of their portfolio performance.
Real Estate with Real Technology
Students use a real house hunting tool to choose any city in America, search for actual homes on the market, and choose the one they want. They’ll also use real technology tools to determine their down payment and interest rates, analyze affordability, and identify the required monthly savings. Students walk away knowing how to purchase their future real-world home!
International Economy Game
Students play a board game in which they are leaders of their own country. They must keep ample resources (food, oil, etc.) by making trades and “betting” some of their resources during quiz cards. But if their country runs out of cash, it’s game over!
The Money Bucket Game
Students must decide how to distribute a character’s fluctuating monthly income into four “money buckets” to ensure he can afford all his living expenses and has enough money for emergencies, while also helping him save for a laptop and set some aside for retirement.
Career Pathway Game
Students explore their future pathways by choosing 3 career clusters to research. They’ll identify jobs in their chosen careers, learn about the responsibilities of those jobs, and see the earning potential of each. Students are already ahead after playing out real world career pathways.
Nucleus Tax Simulator
Students calculate taxes for three characters in this real-world simulation that replicates how they’ll do their own taxes in the future.
Reviews of the Nucleus Financial Literacy Course
FINANCIAL LITERACY
Course Overview
In this 30-module course, students will explore all aspects of financial knowledge to understand their relationship with money, build habits and plans for their own financial success, as well as explore how the economy and government impact their financial future. There are three sections to the 30-module course:
SECTION I
Personal Finance
Real-world applications make learning fun and demonstrate the "why" behind the content standards. Through project-based learning experiences, students get hands-on experience in critical areas such as paying off student debt, building credit and doing taxes. Topics covered include:
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Financial Literacy Intro
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Income & Employment
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Savings & Banking
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Debt & Student Loans
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Credit, Credit Scores & Credit Cards
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Accounting & Budgeting
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Income Taxes
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Home Ownership
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Investing
SECTION II
Economics
Through interactive and gamified classroom experiences, students will enjoy learning about how they fit in the larger scope of the US economy and how governmental policies can impact their financial futures. Topics covered include:
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Basic Economic Principles
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Economic Systems & Market Economies
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Capitalism
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Government & The Economy
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Business Cycles & Recessions
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Monetary Policy
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International Trade & The Global Economy
SECTION III
Wealth Building
Students will learn how to invest their hard-earned money and build a lifelong investment portfolio and a retirement plan to set them up for a better future. Topics covered include:
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Wealth & Portfolio Building
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Bonds
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Stocks & Stock Market
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Business Ownership
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Real Estate Investing
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Insurance & Consumer Protection
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Retirement
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Life Planning
Aligns to State Standards, Meets Grant Objectives
Our course curriculum is aligned to state standards and meets grant objectives. To learn more, you can view our Financial Literacy course syllabus.