Personal Finance Quiz Bowl - Winona State University · Personal Finance Quiz Bowl 3 Overview Winona State University, a regional compre-hensive university with roughly 8,800 stu-dents,

Personal Finance Quiz Bowl

Project Based LearningA case study of a university-facilitated event

with multiple partner school districts and a community bank.

Table of Contents

Overview 3

Planning Considerations 3

The Event 5

Project goals 6

Evaluation 9

District Reports Lewiston-Altura 11

St. Charles Secondary School 14

Winona Senior High School 16

La Cresent-Hokah 18

Recommendations 19

Appendices A. Sample Family Budget Scenario 21

B. Scoring Rubric 23

C. Budget Worksheet 26

D. Health Insurance Plans 28

E. Student Application 30

Personal Finance Quiz Bowl 3

OverviewWinona State University, a regional compre-hensive university with roughly 8,800 stu-dents, located in the small city of Winona MN, is an educational and cultural resource for the southeastern region of the state. Each year the University establishes a theme for curricular and cocurricular explo-ration. The theme for the 2014-15 academic year was Sustainable Futures. As part of the programming for the year, the Universi-ty and its Foundation sponsored a presen-tation by a noted personal finance expert on financial sustainability. Eighteen months before the actual presentation, represen-tatives from the University and Merchants Bank, a regional community bank, began the planning process to develop a cocurric-ular event that would engage high school seniors from neighboring districts, through a personal finance project-based learning experience.

Simultaneous to this planning, the Winona State College of Education was five years into a ten-year transformational initiative for teacher preparation with funding from a grant by the Bush Foundation. One of the key components of the initiative is to estab-lish and maintain collaborative partnerships with area school districts through connec-tions to superintendents, principals and teachers. The college is also beginning the physical design of a new Education Village complex. Dynamic partnerships with region-al public school districts are foundational to the success of both endeavors. Early efforts by the College of Education to forge stronger connections with the districts were pivotal to the ultimate success of the high school personal finance event.

The participating schools included: Wino-na Senior High School, Winona, Minneso-ta, Lewiston-Altura High School, Lewiston, Minnesota, St. Charles High School, St. Charles, Minnesota and La Crescent-Hokah High School, La Crescent, Minnesota.

Support by public school administrators for development of the event was unequivocal. Administrators were generous with their ideas and in providing release time for their teachers. With their district support, sev-eral teachers successfully collaborated to design the event, and as a direct result they shared best practices for teaching person-al finance, developed curriculum for their classrooms and established meaningful cross-district relationships.

Planning ConsiderationsWinona State University representatives wanted to expand the outreach potential of personal finance expert, Chris Farrell’s planned visit to the campus, and enlisted Merchants Bank as a partner in developing community-focused programming. Mer-chants Bank was interested in exposing regional high school students to the topic of personal finance through an event that would include schools where the bank had branch locations. Initially, a vaguely de-fined concept, a Quiz Bowl, was identified for the event.

Participation by regional school districts required the consideration of district ad-ministration and teachers. Having existing relationships with these districts was an essential requirement for earning support for the concept. Winona State was able to make initial contacts through a facul-


ty liaison who had an established working relationship with the districts. The liaison has ongoing responsibility for creating and maintaining partnership agreements with the districts.

Beginning with an open-ended concept for the event helped to get support from the districts. The liaison reflected that starting with ambiguity was valuable because each district administrator could envision an outcome that wasn’t limited by precise pa-rameters and it signaled that the districts would be able to develop the final concept. Before the first planning meeting, event coordinators consulted with the superin-tendent from Lewiston-Altura, a former business education teacher, to flesh out the competition concept.

After four districts agreed to participate, a team of representatives from the uni-versity, school districts, and the bank was formed to create and develop the event. Because the concept was new, significant lead-time and personnel resources were required.

• Planning commenced a year in ad-vance to allow time to develop the event and curriculum adaptations for the fall semester.

• The districts funded up to one day per month release time for their teachers.

• Event planning required the devel-opment of the contest plans, budget scenarios, scoring rubrics, selection of a classroom response tool and the recruitment of multiple volunteers. See Appendices A-D.

• Teacher commitment was founda-tional to development of the event.

Teachers spent considerable person-al time refining their curriculum and building new tools for this competi-tion.

The event required district teachers to adapt and expand their existing curriculum to prepare students for the event.

• Teachers added to their existing les-son plans to enhance student prepa-ration for the competition. One dis-trict teacher added information on investments to increase student ex-posure to the topic. Another district added lessons on how to get a credit score and how to apply for a loan.

• Overall, lessons were adapted to make budgeting projects more reflec-tive of real life situations.

• Throughout the planning phase, teachers liberally shared their person-al finance teaching experiences, best practices and resources with each other.

From the outset, event organizers were interested in making the event an annual occurrence.

• Teachers desired to make additional use of all the new resources they had developed.

• Teachers indicated that making this an annual event would facilitate the recruitment of student participants because student word-of-mouth would help to promote participation in future years.

• District administrators feel they have made a significant investment in teacher preparation time and want to see it further utilized. They also expe-rienced first-hand the excitement of the student teams.


• Student teams and their friends have asked if this event would continue.

The Event Students from the four districts studied personal finance curriculum during the fall semester in preparation for the com-petition. As part of their classroom work, the district teachers hosted guest speak-ers from Merchants Bank and the Winona State University Financial Aid office.

In 2015, at the beginning of spring semes-ter a team of four students was selected to represent each school in the competition. Student selection was based, in part, on the students’ application that included a brief essay. See Appendix E.

Three weeks before the competition, each student team received a unique family sce-nario that they analyzed and used to de-velop a family budget plan. The scenarios were realistic and localized profiles.

The competition was judged by three judg-es, including a Business and Marketing Education Specialist from the Minnesota Department of Education, a two faculty

members from Winona State in Business Education and in Social Studies Teacher Education.

The three-part competition took place from 1:30 to 4:30 at Winona State University.

Part 1: Scenario Presentation

Each student team presented their budget plan based on a previously assigned scenario.

Part 2: Trivia Quiz

All teams participated in a trivia round. Team members collaborated to select their response to a series of questions related to personal fi-nance.

Part 3: Life Event

Each team’s budget scenario then required an adjustment when a life-changing experience occurred. This life change required the team to retool their initial budget. Teams had roughly 40 minutes to consider adaptations before presenting their changes.

Following the competition, the students and their teachers toured the campus and dined in the student dining room before attending Chris Farrell’s evening lecture on personal finance.

Winona State University provided tablets, laptops, and technology support for the competition. Student teams delivered their budget plans with PowerPoint presenta-tions. The trivia round was conducted us-ing Kahoot, a classroom response tool.

https://getkahoot.com/


Project goals1. Leverage the University teacher

preparation program as a catalyst for cross-district collaboration and regional curriculum building

• The Winona State University College of Education has established a goal of on-going collaboration with var-ious school districts as partners in the process of preparing future ed-ucators. WSU employs the services of a licensed public school teacher to serve as a K-12 liaison between eight partner school districts and the Col-lege of Education. The K-12 liaison meets with partner district adminis-trators at least once a month to work on projects, collect data, plan new collaborative initiatives and to as-sess the effectiveness of the teacher preparation program in relationship to the needs of the school districts.

• Three of the schools that participat-ed in the event are in districts where a formal partnership arrangement is in place. The fourth school, the St.

Charles School District, has accepted many WSU student teachers in the past and hires WSU graduates. As ca-pacity for district partners increases, the St. Charles School District could become a formal partner for the Col-lege of Education.

• During the meetings with the superin-tendents and high school principals of each of the districts, it became clear that there was a lot of enthusiasm on the part of the administrators for this event. It also became clear that the teachers who were responsible for teaching the mandated standards for personal finance were usually the only teachers in the district that taught that content.

2. Provide a collaborative, proj-ect-based platform for teachers de-livering personal finance education in rural districts

• District teachers took the lead in planning the quiz bowl event.

• The impact on the curriculum in each of the schools was significant. There

By learning about

practices in other districts,

the event became a way

to increase teacher exposure

to knowledge and tools for

teaching economics.


are five standards for the state grad-uation requirement in economics. Two of those standards can be met and one standard can be partially met through the personal finance cur-riculum, yet all of the social studies teachers admitted that before this event, they spent the least amount of class time on personal finance in economics class. Teachers also ex-plored the idea of developing curric-ulum through “strands” of concepts that could be applied to all areas of economics. Many of the principles of personal finance are applicable to microeconomics and macroeconomics and “strands” of concepts help stu-dents understand economic issues on a personal as well as a global basis.

• The state standards are a part of the social studies requirements for Min-nesota, yet three of the participating teachers taught social studies and two teachers taught business. When these teachers met together, they had a chance to compare curricu-lum, content, projects, assessments and resources. The teachers had the opportunity to learn from each other while helping to prepare for the per-sonal finance event. By learning about

practices in other districts, the event became a way to increase teacher exposure to knowledge and tools for teaching economics.

3. Strengthen student exposure to personal finance

• The competition aspect of this project raises the level of student interest in personal finance.

• Teachers report that student involve-ment increases when they are pre-paring for a project that they see as being more than a class assignment. Students adopt a greater level of per-sonal responsibility when they real-ize their work is being observed and evaluated by other educators.

• This project lets students direct-ly apply their education to their life interests. Students, parents and the broader community value the real life skills this project emphasized.

4. Support partner districts in devel-oping and delivering curriculum, and in building student expert teams

The College of Education K-12 liaison worked closely with the teachers to develop an evaluation matrix, scenar-io format and life-changing events. He also maintained continuous contact with district administrators to keep them in-formed of progress with the event.

Winona State University representatives assisted with planning, managed logis-tics and provided promotional materials.

The community partner’s contributions added meaningful context by contribut-


ing real-life personal finance information on personal banking and college finan-cial aid.

5. Incentivize participation through partnership with community agen-cies

Merchants Bank contributed significant benefit throughout the planning process and during the competition. The bank hosted early planning meetings with district administrators and teachers. Bank employees visited the classrooms in each district to teach about personal finance from a banking perspective and wrote personal finance questions for the trivia round of the competition. One class was able to tour the bank head-quarters. Merchants Bank incentivized participation by providing a $250 schol-arship for each member of the winning team and a $100 scholarship for all other participants.

The Winona State University financial aid office also participated in the plan-ning and teaching process. A financial aid officer visited classrooms in each district to teach about financing higher education and also wrote financial aid related questions for the trivia round.

Chris Farrell, economist and personal finance expert moderated the Quiz Bowl competition. He reflected on the house-hold budgets submitted by each team. Part of the student’s reward was to attend Farrell’s evening address and the winning team made sure to have their picture taken with him.

6. Determine whether the event could be replicated on an annual basis The following elements deserve consid-eration for successful replication of the event.

• University personnel managed logis-tics. They took responsibility for cor-respondence, convening and hosting all meetings and provided a venue for the event. WSU Information Technol-ogy provided laptops and tablets for student use and managed technology infrastructure during the competition. The University also funded dinner for the teams and their students in the campus dining hall. University fac-ulty served as judges for the event and encouraged university students to assist district teachers with their student teams.

• The College of Education liaison chaired the planning meetings, guided the development of rubrics and main-tained contact with district adminis-trators for the entire year. This con-tact included personal visits as well as correspondence.

• District teachers took responsibility for all competition materials, including the scenarios, scoring rubrics, writing the final questions and management of the classroom response tool.

• District teachers recruited student teams, coached the teams on their scenario research and presenta-tion and transported students to the event.


• Merchants Bank provided scholar-ships, classroom support and person-al finance expertise for the event.

• WSU Financial Aid office provided classroom support and higher educa-tion funding expertise for the event.

Evaluation The event garnered significant positive feedback by student participants, adminis-trators, teachers and University officials.

Extensive pre-planning and collaboration were critical factors in the success of the event. While debriefing the event, numer-ous benefits for the students, teachers and districts were identified.

• Once teams were established, the students were excited and commit-ted. They put in extra time to pre-pare. Without specific direction, the students dressed professionally, and in one district, team members re-quested briefcases.

• Students were willing to do extra work because it was a public event and it was being held outside of the classroom.

• A project-based learning opportunity such as this, empowers teachers to

take control of their curriculum and to align student needs and interests with the state learning standards.

• The event was a vehicle for individual teachers to complete personal and curricular goals.

• The event combines exposure to numerous disciplines in one project, including literacy, speech, technology, mathematics, logic, comprehension and research skills.

• This personal finance event meets three of five Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards for Social Studies for eco-nomics.

• For participating districts, this project provided one of the most authen-tic exposures to careers in finance, banking, insurance, and investments that their students receive during their high school years.

• Every adult who assisted with, or observed the personal finance event made positive comments. The adults wished they had an opportunity like this personal finance event when they were in high school, since this is in-formation they use every day. Many commented that financial mistakes in their past may have been avoided had they been taught personal fi-nance. Others commented that ef-fects of the 2008 recession continue to be a struggle for many families. The more education we can impart to future generations regarding personal finance, the more likely they will be able to avoid costly financial mistakes in their lifetimes.

• The funds provided by the Winona State University Foundation to the districts for teacher release time to

“This was the single best

educational experience

I have ever had.”


develop this case study created good will because it is a rare instance when the school districts are on the receiv-ing end of funding.

Because this was a first time event, several unanticipated issues surfaced.

• Only one girl participated in the com-petition. A few others considered par-ticipating but had schedule conflicts.

• Because of existing cocurricular and athletic after-school programs the event competed for the time and attention of students. Student teams prepared either before school or late into the evening to research and build their presentation.

• Meeting after school in rural districts can be more challenging because of bussing.

• The availability of university teach-er preparation students to help the teams prepare, did not align well with the timeframes when the district teachers needed them.

• Winona State financial aid represen-tatives were not available to the dis-tricts until December and that timing did not work well with the district curriculum needs.

• Wireless access was not available to the teachers during planning meet-ings at Winona State. Readily avail-able access would have facilitated planning processes.

Teachers and event coordinators partici-pated in lengthy discussions about how to overcome barriers that prevent the repeti-tion of this worthwhile learning experience. Considerations included:

• A more advantageous time for the event is worth exploring.

• Team preparation could become a classroom project to eliminate time conflicts with existing extracurricular programs.

• Since most districts have different students in economics each semes-ter, holding events in December and May could increase participation. This would allow for classroom prepa-ration. This schedule would require modifications to the event because it does not align well with the University class schedule.

The distinct attributes of each district and the teachers resulted in differentiated out-comes. A summary of findings by district teachers follows.


Lewiston-Altura LEWISTON, MN

scenarios where families were relocating to Southeastern Minnesota.

As the planning for the Quiz Bowl was tak-ing place, the economics course at LAHS was under curriculum review which is completed on a five-year cycle. Linda Kil-lian-Baures (Ms. KB) has been teaching at LAHS for four years now and had six years of teaching experience (including five years teaching personal finance) before her tenure at LAHS. The curriculum at LAHS included only a few units on personal fi-nance from the previous business teacher but over the last four years the curriculum was changed to meet more of the person-al finance requirements of the standards. The current economics course is on a block schedule (86 minutes per day). Economics at LAHS is a required semester long course for seniors, where macro and micro eco-nomics is taught for one quarter and per-sonal finance is taught for another quarter.

The curriculum was also changed this year to align with the Quiz Bowl. The personal finance section of the course was taught first so the students would be fully prepared for the competition. This was a beneficial change to make because the references

352 students Grades 7 through 12

32.95% free and reduced lunch program

5% minority students

Senior Class – 40 students (3 P.S.E.O.), with 1 minority student.

The high school is located in Lewiston, MN, which is located 11 miles West of Wino-na, MN and has a population of 1,591. The economics teacher was Linda Killian-Baures, the Superintendent was Jeff Apse and the High School Principal was Mitch Schiltz.

During one of the first planning meetings, the teachers were discussing how a bud-get scenario could be included in the quiz bowl to incorporate project based learning. All the participants were excited about the idea but at the same time were wondering how we could accomplish this goal. This added much time and preparation for the quiz bowl but a great addition to the ba-sic question and answer session. Many of the teachers used some type of budgeting simulation in their courses, but the planning committee decided on a budget scenario adapted from the Life-In Budget Plan simu-lation from the University of Arizona. All of the teachers took on the task of writing two

https://takechargetoday.arizona.edu/


back to personal finance while teaching macroeconomics helped students make a connection to the macro part of the course. In addition, two speakers were incorporated into the curriculum. Merchants Bank pro-vided an investment advisor to speak on stocks and investments. Also, the Financial Aid Advisor from WSU presented informa-tion about FAFSA and college costs. Both speakers added a full day of curriculum each that was not previously taught during the course. A few online lessons for stu-dents were included to go more in depth on a specific group of topics which aided stu-dents in the Kahoot trivia session.

In addition to the changes above, during the meetings at WSU, teachers were con-tinuously sharing resources and having side conversations about how to incorporate different resources into the curriculum. This was a valued part of the planning process and these resources are now included in the list of resources for the Economics course at LAHS.

The LAHS Personal Finance Quiz Bowl team was made up of three male students and one female student.

The biggest challenge for the event was ac-tually forming a team. The scholarship offer was definitely an enticement for students to apply for the Quiz Bowl. In the end, the deadline to apply for the Quiz Bowl was ex-tended so more students could apply. Many of the students interested were already spread too thin in all the extra-curricular activities they are already involved in. Five students applied; but, it was difficult pick-ing the last participant for the four-person team. A change to make in the future would be to have a rubric for the initial application essay and form a group of teachers to help

judge. This would also allow students to know the initial expectations for writing the essay. In the end, one applicant didn’t real-ize the event was the same time she would be on a family trip.

The team of four was decided which was made up of three males and one female. The team worked well together; they just had many other commitments. There was immediate excitement for the planning of the competition. After the students were told the requirements of the event, the first thing they did was to coordinate their out-fits for the day of the competition. They also talked about how cool it would be to be the winners of the first Quiz Bowl.

The team struggled to find time to work together to prepare the budget plan. Many of them had an independent study or were a teaching assistant during the same time of day, so they met mostly during this time. The team was surprised about how difficult it was to stay within a budget with the sce-

“This was way more fun than I

thought it was going to be.”


nario they received. They called landlords in Winona to gain additional information about apartments they found for rent. They also called an insurance agent in Winona to ob-tain an auto insurance quote. This proved to be a teachable moment about how to have appropriate and professional phone conver-sations.

The day of the competition arrived and they met during the morning to finalize their presentation. They did not have time to prepare at all for the Kahoot trivia round and only strategized who would answer the questions and how they would go about trying to answer the questions. When the students arrived at WSU, they became more nervous because the principal and the superintendent both were there to see them give their budget plan presentation. This illustrated the commitment the administra-tion at LAHS had for the event.

During the presentation round, the LAHS team had the most difficult budget sce-nario. They did a great job explaining all of

their choices. The team also did very well in the Kahoot trivia round and in the end they took 1st place in the entire competition. Af-ter the lyceum with Chris Farrell, they asked to have their picture taken with him and one of the students made the comment, “This was way more fun than I thought it was going to be.”

The students were so excited on the way back to school talking about how they did and what questions came up that they did know and who knew some of the tougher questions. They asked to see the comments and rubrics from the speaker. There was even talk about making T-shirts. There is one student from the team that will see me in the hall from time to time and every time he will say, “Hey Ms. KB, we won”! During the all-school award ceremony, they were acknowledged as the first winners of the Personal Finance Quiz Bowl and they were cheering all the way through it. They are still excited 3 months later for winning an academic competition.


439 students 7-12

26.65% free and reduced lunch program

15.48% minority students

Senior class – 52 students (3 PSEO), with 19.23 % minority students.

St. Charles is located 20 miles west of Wino-na, MN and 20 east of Rochester, MN with a population of 3,742. The economics teacher was Laura Edlund, the superintendent was Mark Roubinek and the high school principal was Ben Bernard.

The economics teacher from St. Charles High School was Ms. Laura Edlund. She is in her fourth year teaching, all of which have been at St. Charles. Along with senior econom-ics, she also teaches ninth grade Personal Finance and Money Skills (PF & M), and sev-enth grade social studies.

In St. Charles High School, the former eco-nomics teacher, Mr. Kris Bertelson, spun the personal finance standards off from the eco-nomics standards to form a separate class. The PF & M class is taught to ninth grade students and the standard economics class is taught to twelfth grade students. Previously,

students were taught budgeting skills in ninth grade with a brief review in economics.

From the first meeting between the schools, teachers, Merchants Bank, and Winona State University in April 2014 until competition in February 2015, the PF & M and economics curricula were being continuously modi-fied to better prepare students for the real world as well as the competition. The biggest change was made to the budgeting review in the senior economics class where a unit was added from the Take Charge Today curriculum from the University of Arizona. Linda Killian-Baures, from Lewiston, shared the lesson plan, Life in the … United States, from the University of Arizona with all of the teachers. To make room for the Life in the … United States lesson plan in the curriculum the other economics units were modified for time and content and the “Labor Market” unit was extremely modified to fit the 5-6 day Life in the … United States curriculum. It was one of the best changes made to the curric-ulum in the last four years. Students became incredibly engaged in the scenarios, com-plaining about making ends meet and rejoic-ing when they found out they didn’t have any credit card debt. The lesson plan was tied in

St. Charles Secondary SchoolST. CHARLES SCHOOLS, ST. CHARLES, MN




with a visit from Merchants Bank where stu-dents learned more about credit and person-al banking.

The St. Charles Personal Finance Quiz Bowl team was made of up three male students, two of which were Hispanic. The Life in the … United States lesson plan was first taught in the fall semester and one of those stu-dents made up the three-student team for the Personal Finance Quiz Bowl, two other team members had economics in the spring with another teacher, so they weren’t able to use the curriculum. The student from the fall semester made himself “captain” of the team and he was able to help lead the rest of the team through the budgeting process. The students were able to easily translate the skills and knowledge they gained from PF & M and the Life in the … United States curriculum to the Personal Finance Quiz Bowl scenario. All of the students found the real life situations they had to handle, such as having to call banks for mortgage rates and insurance companies for policy quotes, really interesting and useful. For example, students called an insurance company for car insur-ance quotes where they had to practice and figure out what to say and how to go about getting the information that was needed. All of the students agreed that it was a wonder-ful experience and great practice for real life.

One of the biggest challenges was recruiting students to join the team. The senior class at St. Charles this year is only 52 students and many of them are in winter sports or other activities, such as Knowledge Bowl, Robotics, or Math League. This made it very difficult to find students who were interested in join-ing and also had the time to join, as many of the students who would be the typical par-ticipants were majorly overbooked. At one point, the team had four students, but then

a student realized that the day of the Quiz Bowl was the same as the regional Robotics competition so he decided to drop the Quiz Bowl team. It was also a struggle to find time for the team to get together and work on their scenario presentation. In the end, the team met before school from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and sometimes into first hour when two of the students had study hall.

The day of the competition was exciting. From day one, the team planned on dressing professionally, which included ties. They also tried to find briefcases with the plan to in-timidate the competition. The team practiced their presentation the entire way to Winona State. Once there they were excited but also very nervous, however they ended up hav-ing a lot of fun. The highlight of the evening was on the way home, when the students poured over their score. They discussed what they could have done differently to increase their score, what they did well, and what the other teams did well. The week following the competition, the entire team was still excited about competition. They were telling other students that they were second place; even though all they knew was that they weren’t first. They all thought that it was a great experience and other students said they wish they had joined the team. After having such a positive experience at Winona State, one of the team members decided to attend WSU this coming fall.

Students were willing to do

extra work because it was a

public event and it was being held

outside of the classroom.


Winona Senior High SchoolWINONA AREA PUBLIC SCHOOLS, WINONA, MN

students are required to take an economics course as part of their graduation require-ments. There are three such economics courses offered at WSHS; economics, chal-lenge economics, and challenge economics and statistics. These courses cover all the Minnesota state economics curriculum stan-dards and are offered through the Social Studies department. The challenge econom-ics and statistics course is team-taught by a social studies teacher and a math teacher. Due to the additional curriculum it lasts two terms. All the other courses mentioned are taught over a single term. A term at WSHS consists of either a 50-minute course that lasts a semester or a 90 minute course that lasts one quarter.

The structure of how the personal finance curriculum is delivered at Winona Senior High School provided unique challenges to the implementation of this project. Because the students receive personal finance ed-ucation from a variety of teachers during a variety of courses, it was difficult for a single teacher to assemble a team that had recently received the proper instruction. For example, by the time the competition was to take place it had been months since the supervising teacher, Brad Masche, had

998 Total students grades 9 - 12

876 white students (87.78%)

122 minority students (12.22%)

305 students receiving free or reduced lunch (30.56%)

Winona Senior High School is located in the southeast corner of Minnesota in the city of Winona. Winona has 27,592 inhabitants.

The economics teachers were Bradley Masche and Rhonda Aspensen. The super-intendents during the project were Scott Hannon and Stephan West. The high school principals were Kelly Halvorsen and Ryan Jensen.

At Winona Senior High School the person-al finance curriculum is taught in a num-ber of separate courses. Students are first exposed to the Minnesota state personal finance curriculum during a small introduc-tory unit within a required American Studies course as freshmen. As juniors or seniors the students may choose to take an elective personal finance course. This course focus-es entirely on the personal finance curricu-lum standards. The personal finance class is offered through the Business Education department. Furthermore, as seniors all


instructed an economics class. As a result students were recruited from other courses.

Recruitment of team members exposed departmental conflict in the curriculum and resulted in greater collaboration within the high school. All of the students that partic-ipated in the event for Winona Senior High School had most recently taken the person-al finance elective course through the busi-ness department. Because of this, Rhonda Aspenson, the business education teacher who taught the personal finance course, was brought on as an additional supervising teacher.

The four original members of Winona’s team included three seniors and one ju-nior. Three of the four members were male, and the only female member dropped out before the competition. One of the remain-ing members was a foreign exchange stu-dent from Bangladesh. All of the remaining team members showed a surprising level of enthusiasm for the project. Because their supervising teacher coached wres-tling after school, the participants worked independently or met before school in the weeks leading up to the competition. On the night before the competition, the members stayed at the school until nearly 10:00 p.m. to finish the project with their supervising teacher. Ryan Frye, a social studies educa-tion student from Winona State University, also stayed to help work on the project and did a great job working with the students. The passion the students had for this proj-ect far surpassed the passion they had for more traditional schoolwork.

The day of the competition was an excel-lent experience for WSHS. It was clear that the budget that the Winona team present-

ed was more than an assignment to them. They enthusiastically brought attention to the creative methods they used to save their money, and they defended their finan-cial decisions with a sense of total owner-ship. The curriculum director, Kelly Halvor-son, and superintendent, Dr. Stephen West, attended the competition and cheered the students on during the quiz bowl portion of the event. Having administrative support only amplified the team’s enthusiasm. After the event was over, the foreign exchange student from Bangladesh said, “This was the single best educational experience I have ever had.” He went on to ask his su-pervising teacher, “Why isn’t all school like this?”

Participation in this project is changing the way personal finance is taught at Winona Senior High School. One of the greatest benefits of the project was the sharing of ideas across school districts and depart-ments. The addition of the Taking Charge curriculum from the University of Arizona, and the Minnesota Council of Economics Education lesson plans have been added to multiple courses at WSHS. The project con-tent overlap between the personal finance course and the economics courses is being eliminated.


La Cresent-Hokah LA CRESCENT, MN

The economics teacher, Gene Francis, was also able to attend the first hour of the next planning meeting on May 13. Before leaving, he expressed some hesitation to incorporat-ing curriculum on personal finance into his economics class. During the summer and through the fall semester, Gene was not able to attend any of the planning meetings, but was able to provide scenarios to be used for creating budgets for working families in Southeast Minnesota.

In January 2015, Gene informed us that he was not able to put together a team. He had tried to recruit students and some had shown interest. He also mentioned that he was setting up a program with Altra Federal Credit Union and the free service they of-fer of avatars that walk through a variety of financial situations that people encounter at different points of their lives instead of using Merchants Bank as a resource. He indicated that he would continue to try to put togeth-er a four student team, but in February, he wrote to tell us that he only had one student who was interested and that La Crescent High School would not participate this year.

The WSU liaison continues to meet with dis-trict administrators on an on-going basis.

La Crescent High School is a part of the La Crescent-Hokah School District.

410 students in grades 9-12

14.14% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch

3% minority students

The economics teacher was Gene Francis, the superintendent was Ron Wilke and the high school principal was Rick Wolter.

The economics teacher and high school prin-cipal from the La Crescent High School as well as the superintendent of the La Cres-cent-Hokah School District #300, attended the first meeting at Merchants Bank on April 29th, 2014. The administrators were support-ive of the plan to implement a Quiz Bowl with personal finance as the topic and connect-ing with Chris Farrell as a moderator for the event. The La Crescent principal, Rick Wolter, suggested that the winning team be awarded a scholarship and Mark Metzler from Mer-chants Bank offered to provide scholarships to not just the winning team, but to all the participants. The superintendent, Ron Wilke, gave suggestions for the development and construction of the Quiz Bowl.


Recommendations District teachers and Winona State repre-sentatives want to see reoccurrences of this event. Planners recommend modifications to improve student exposure to personal finance curriculum and preparation for the competition.

Pre-event preparation To improve preparation planners recom-mend that teachers make competition preparation a classroom project. This will eliminate conflicts with existing extracur-ricular programs and increase student par-ticipation. If preparation is integrated into the classroom, the entire class will work on a scenario during the semester and more students would be prepared to participate in the competition. The student application process will be retained for determining team members. While the team members will still need to prepare outside of class time, less preparation time will be required because members will have worked on the scenario during the semester.

When the team is selected, members will build the family budget and submit it to the competition judges. Just prior to the presentation, teams will receive their life-changing event. Teams will prepare their revised budget and presentation for the competition.

Competition formatAt the competition, each team will briefly explain their original budget. They will then elaborate more fully on the changes that

were required by the life-changing event. This will provide greater opportunity for students to do a better job of assessing the quality of their original budget plans.

The competition will also include a trivia around.

The competition can accommodate up to five teams. Planners recommend that the College of Education recruit teams from two additional partner districts.

The afternoon timing of the first event worked well. Planners recommend similar timing going forward.

Competition timingAll participating districts have economics (or business education) classes in fall and spring semester. Holding two Quiz Bowl competition events, in December and May, will increase opportunities for student par-ticipation.

Different options for judges may need to be explored with the May and December timing because WSU faculty may not be available. Other teachers or bank officials could be considered as future judges.

Partner-specific recommendationsDistrict teachers

• Meet in August to determine curricu-lar adaptations, scenarios and event dates. Meet again in Nov. to fine-tune competition plans.

• Modify current rubric for changes to competition


• Review and possibly create additional scenarios and trivia questions

District Administration• Provide support for teachers and for

the competition event

• Provide release time for teachers in Aug. and Nov. to fine-tune event planning.

Winona State College of Education • Provide administrative and logistic

support, including calling meetings and providing meeting venues

• Provide event venue

• Continue to liaise with districts for successful outcomes

Winona State Financial Aid• To improve alignment with district

curriculum the WSU financial aid rep-resentative is requested visit class-rooms in either October or November.

Merchants Bank• All teachers saw their Merchants

speaker-guests as valuable additions to their instruction and request the continuation of bank representative visits to their classrooms.

• The scholarships were a great incen-tive for students. Planners respect-fully request consideration for con-tinuance of student scholarships, at a minimum for the winning team.

This Case Study was funded by the Winona State University Foundation


Appendices

Appendix A- Sample Family Budget Scenario

The Johnson FamilyPersonal profile:

Name/Race/Gender/Age/Marital Status Children

Tonya– African American Female, Age 34, Single Shawn – Male, Age 15

Residence – Southeastern Minnesota

Occupation/Education level:

Tonya – High School Social Studies Teacher – Bachelor’s Degree

Background Information:

Tonya graduated from the University of Minnesota a few months ago. She has finally earned the teaching degree she started working on over 15 years ago. Before Tonya grad-uated from high school she knew she wanted to be a high school teacher. However, her freshman year in college she found out she was pregnant and decided to take a year off school. One year away from her studies turned into several years. Tonya was able to earn a few credits at a time, however, balancing her schoolwork, her job at a childcare center, and her duties as a single parent sometimes proved impossible. It wasn’t until her son Shawn was 12 years old that she felt comfortable leaving him home alone so she could attend evening classes. Unfortunately, her several years of schooling have added up to a large monthly student loan bill; $689. The good news is she has gotten a job offer at Winona Se-nior High School, and she is finally going to start the career she always dreamed of.

Tonya and Shawn were living in Tonya’s childhood home in Minneapolis. Tonya inherited the house when her mother died 8 years ago. She just sold the house and netted $11,000. She would really like to own a place of her own, but also would like to start a college fund to help Shawn pay for school.

Shawn is friendly kid and has mixed feelings about the move. He has a good group of friends in Minneapolis. However, he knows this is a great opportunity for his mom and he has watched her struggle to earn her degree his whole life. Furthermore, he has been invit-ed back to be on an elite basketball team with his friends next summer. He is hoping that


his mom may be able to help him buy a car or at least give him a ride to the cities every Tuesday and Thursday in the summer.

Tonya is also looking forward to a new social life. As a working single mom going to college her time and money were very limited. Now that she has a job and her son is more inde-pendent she hopes to find a group of friends to go out and socialize with. She would also like to start dating again.

Tonya Johnson’s Employment Information

Job Awarded Employer Benefits Retirement Package

HS Social Studies Teacher WAPS

Employer covers 75% of medical insurance Monthly Premiums for family

TRA – employer contributes $100 per month regardless of individual contributions

Gross Pay – $2,719 per month

Life eventsLife Event #1

Shawn decides to go out for three sports (football, basketball, and track and field) each sport has a fee of $135.00.

Life Event #2

Tonya gets engaged and wants to have a $15,000 wedding

Life Event #3

The Federal Government announces that the Social Security benefits will not be awarded to anyone born after 1979 due to reduced revenue and increased expenses.


Appe

ndix

B- Sc

oring

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ic

Pres

enta

tion

1

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tingu

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ofic

ient

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eria

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e

BU

DG

ET A

ND

G

OAL

S3

21

0

Spec

ific

& S

trat

egic

All g

oals

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cific

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early

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rate

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lann

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t of t

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oals

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ased

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cite

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t of t

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udge

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timat

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re b

ased

on

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arch

that

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ited

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accu

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et

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ates

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n re

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at is

cite

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d ac

cura

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none

of t

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timat

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ased

on

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that

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ited

and

accu

rate

.

PRES

ENTA

TIO

N3

21

0

Part

icip

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roup

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ir sh

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in

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APPE

ND

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.

___

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Appe

ndix

B- Sc

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ntat

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Dis

tingu

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eria

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32

10

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th

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last

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twee

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and

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btot

alPr

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n 2

LIFE

EVE

NT

ADJU

STM

ENT

32

10

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get a

nd G

oals

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stm

ent t

o lif

e ev

ent

still

mat

ches

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es

and

all g

oals

are

adj

uste

d ac

cord

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y.

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stm

ent t

o lif

e ev

ent

still

mat

ches

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t val

ues

and

mos

t goa

ls a

re

adju

sted

acc

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ngly

.

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stm

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ent

still

mat

ches

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e va

lues

and

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e go

als

are

adju

sted

acc

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ngly

.

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stm

ent t

o lif

e ev

ent

does

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ch v

alue

s an

d go

als

are

not c

hang

ed.


Appe

ndix

B- Sc

oring

Rubr

ic co

ntinu

ed

Ref

lect

ion

Stud

ents

dem

onst

rate

full

unde

rsta

ndin

g of

how

or

igin

al c

hoic

es

influ

ence

d th

eir a

bilit

y to

re

spon

d to

the

life

even

t.

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ents

dem

onst

rate

so

me

unde

rsta

ndin

g of

ho

w o

rigin

al c

hoic

es

influ

ence

d th

eir a

bilit

y to

re

spon

d to

the

life

even

t.

Stud

ents

dem

onst

rate

lit

tle u

nder

stan

ding

of

how

orig

inal

cho

ices

in

fluen

ced

thei

r abi

lity

to

resp

ond

to th

e lif

e ev

ent.

Stud

ents

dem

onst

rate

no

unde

rsta

ndin

g of

how

or

igin

al c

hoic

es in

fluen

ced

thei

r abi

lity

to re

spon

d to

th

e lif

e ev

ent.

Pres

enta

tion

Pres

ente

rs e

xpla

ined

all

chan

ges

in d

etai

l.Pr

esen

ters

exp

lain

ed

som

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ange

s in

det

ail.

Pres

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rs e

xpla

ined

a

few

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nges

in d

etai

l.Pr

esen

ters

did

not

exp

lain

ch

ange

s.

Pres

enta

tion

2 Su

btot

al

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l


Appendix C–Budget WorksheetSpending Plan Statementtakechargetodayarizona.edu

Name

2 Short Term Goals

3 Long Term Goals — one must be related to retirement

APPENDIX C - Budget Worksheet

Name:2 Short Term Goals

3 Long Term Goals - one must be related to retirement

Category Item Amount Budgeted Percentage of Net Income

Federal WithholdingState WithholdingSocial SecurityMedicarePension Contributions (401K, 403B, TSP)Medical Additional Withholding

NET INCOME (Total Gross Income - Paycheck Deductions)

Paycheck Deductions

Housing

IncomeWages

Expense

Paycheck Deductions Subtotal

Savings and Investing Subtotal

Spending Plan Statementwww.takechargetodayarizona.edu

Total Gross Income

Savings and Investing

Housing Subtotal


Transportation Subtotal

Insurance Subtotal

Food Subtotal

Cost of Raising Children Subtotal

Loan Repayment SubtotalOther Expenditures

Other Expenditures SubtotalTotal Expense

Net Loss or Gain (Total Gross Income - Total Expense)

Cost of Raising Children

Insurance

Food

Transportation

Appendix C- Budget Worksheet continued


Appendix D- Health Insurance PlansTo establish a level of consistency in planning, all teams used the same health insurance information.

Individual CoverageSilver Copay Plan Silver HSA Plan

Monthly Cost $275.80 $266.31Deductible $2,600.00; Does not apply

to prenatal care$1,300.00; Does not apply to prenatal care

Maximum Out-of-Pocket $5,750.00 $5,450.00Coinsurance 40% 40%Preventative Care / Screen-ing / Immunizations

No charge No charge

Primary Care Visit to Treat an Injury or Illness

$30 No charge; 40% coinsur-ance after deductible

Urgent Care Center or Fa-cilities


Specialist Visit No referral needed; $30 No referral needed; No charge; 40% coinsurance after deductible

Emergency Room Services No charge; 40% coinsur-ance after deductible

No charge; 40% coinsur-ance after deductible

Hospitalizations (inpatient) $0 copay per day; 40% co-insurance after deductible Facility Fee

$0 copay per day; 40% co-insurance after deductible Facility Fee

Laboratory Services No charge; 40% coinsur-ance after deductible


X-rays and Diagnostic Im-aging



If you are pregnant Prenatal – no chargePostnatal – 40% coinsur-ance

Prenatal – no chargePostnatal – 40% coinsur-ance

Health Insurance Terms• Deductible – the amount you must pay before the plan begins to pay for covered

services.

• Coinsurance – your share of the costs of a covered service, calculated as a percent-age of the allowed amount for the service.

• Co-payments (copay) – fixed dollar amounts you pay for covered health care, usual-ly when you receive the service.

• Out-of-pocket limit – the most you could pay during a coverage period for your share of the cost of covered services.


Family Coverage Silver Copay Plan Silver HSA Plan

Monthly Cost $275.80 – Primary$283.91 – Spouse$225.81 – per Child

$266.31 – Primary$274.15 – Spouse$218.04 – per Child

Deductible $7,800.00; Does not apply to prenatal care

$$2,600.00; Does not ap-ply to prenatal care

Maximum Out-of-Pocket $11,500.00 $10,000.00Coinsurance 40% 40%Preventative Care / Screen-ing / Immunizations

No charge No charge

Primary Care Visit to Treat an Injury or Illness


Urgent Care Center or Fa-cilities


Specialist Visit No referral needed; $30 No referral needed; No charge; 40% coinsurance after deductible

Emergency Room Services No charge; 40% coinsur-ance after deductible


Hospitalizations (inpatient) $0 copay per day; 40% co-insurance after deductible Facility Fee

$0 copay per day; 40% co-insurance after deductible Facility Fee

Laboratory Services No charge; 40% coinsur-ance after deductible


X-rays and Diagnostic Im-aging



If you are pregnant Prenatal – no chargePostnatal – 40% coinsur-ance

Prenatal – no chargePostnatal – 40% coinsur-ance

Health Insurance Terms• Deductible – the amount you must pay before the plan begins to pay for covered

services.

• Coinsurance – your share of the costs of a covered service, calculated as a percent-age of the allowed amount for the service.

• Co-payments (copay) – fixed dollar amounts you pay for covered health care, usual-ly when you receive the service.

• Out-of-pocket limit – the most you could pay during a coverage period for your share of the cost of covered services.


Personal Finance Quiz Bowl M o d e r a t e d b y C h r i s F a r r e l l , M P R e c o n o m i s t a n d a u t h o r

Thursday Feb. 26, 2015 1:30 to 4:30Winona State University Kryzsko Commons Rooms 247 - 249

Be part of your school’s 4-person teamDemonstrate your personal finance knowledge

Compete with area teams Each member of the winning team will receive $250 scholarship from Merchants Bank

Participating High Schools Contact your teacher to apply.

La Crescent – Mr. Gene Francis Lewiston-Altura – Ms. Linda Killian-Baures St. Charles – Ms. Laura Edlund Winona – Mr. Bradley Masche

Quiz Bowl 1:30 – 4:30Dinner in wsu student dining room and campus tour 5:00 – 6:30 Chris Farrell Presentation 7:00 – Quiz Bowl winners announced

Application for the Personal Finance Quiz BowlName _________________________________________________________________________________________

Address (Street, City, State, Zip code) ________________________________________________________________

Email address __________________________________________________________________________________

On additional paper, please write a brief description of your education goals and please write a brief essay on “Why personal finance knowledge is important to you.”

Sponsored by Winona State University College of Education • Merchants Bank • Winona State Lyceum Speaker Series • Winona State University Foundation

Take on these schoolsFo

ur Pe

rson Team

Eat FREE and take home some bank (mayb

e)

Appendix E–Student Application

Personal Finance Quiz Bowl - Winona State University · Personal Finance Quiz Bowl 3 Overview Winona State University, a regional compre-hensive university with roughly 8,800 stu-dents,

Documents