Editor’s note: This column was included in the Aug. 8 version of The Pulse, a weekly BankBeat newsletter sent to subscribers.
It’s August, which means the start of the school year is approaching. Maybe your bank partners with a local school to help students develop their financial literacy. Kudos to you and your bank if that’s the case!
You can do a lot of good for young people by showing them the ways of finance. Most grade school students and high schoolers know little about budgeting, compound interest, how a credit card works, the laws of supply and demand, why FDIC insurance is important or, how to build a credit score and why that’s important. You get the idea. There is probably no one in your community more qualified to volunteer periodically at your local school to share the basics of finance than you.
Young people are likely to think that finance or economics is boring, so any teacher or presenter has to work a little to find a way to make the learning fun. I want to share with you a trick I picked up years ago from Jumpstart.org that might make your presentation a little more fun. It’s a puzzle, guaranteed to dazzle every kid in the class.
Ask students to think of their birthday; tell them that by using math you will guess it correctly! In eight easy steps, here’s how it works:
- Have them think of the month number for their birthday, where January equals 1, February 2, and so on.
- Have them multiply the number by 5.
- Then add 6.
- Then multiply that total by four.
- Then add 9.
- Then multiply this total by 5.
- Finally, have them add to that total the day on which they were born. (If they were born on the 16th, for example, they would add 16.)
- From the total, have the students subtract 165, and they will end up with a number that shows the month and day they were born. Works every time! And, depending on what grade the students are in, they will think you are a genius!
Summer goes too quickly. Enjoy the nice weather we have left but plan for the coming months and if your schedule allows, try to make time to help out some local students with financial education.
