Kickstarting Collaboration With a Lockbox Challenge
When teens work together to solve puzzles, they practice much-needed social skills鈥攁nd engage more deeply with the content.
Your content has been saved!
Go to My Saved Content.鈥淲ith the pandemic, kids have been staring at screens for a couple of years now,鈥� says Susan Bistransin, of Prince George鈥檚 County Public Schools. 鈥淎nd they relish being able to get away from that. I think part of what they lost鈥攏ot just learning loss during the pandemic鈥攚as socialization. Working in teams is something that doesn鈥檛 come naturally to most kids anymore.鈥�
Bistransin and other teachers at Parkdale High School in Riverdale, Maryland, have found that high school students are more engaged in off-screen activities, particularly ones where kids get to work together. In Oscar Pe帽a鈥檚 financial literacy class, kids collaborate on a regular basis. Eleventh grader Iraima enjoys the fact that she gets to talk with other classmates and share opinions. 鈥淚鈥檝e definitely built a lot of friendships throughout the class.鈥�
In this fun lesson, kids race against the clock to test their knowledge of what they鈥檝e learned about online banking. Like escape rooms, this kind of activity is built around a story or scenario, and it works well for reviewing information at the end of a unit or before an assessment.
You can download , , and an for this activity, courtesy of Susan Bistransin, NBCT.
Want more ideas for teaching financial literacy? Here鈥檚 another fun financial game for students.