Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 1|Page

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 2|Page

II) INITIATING

A. Statement of the Problem

Many adults state that as children, they did not feel well enough about financial literacy in their adult years
due to the lack of learning about financial literacy and how to manage money early. Many adults had made
bad financial decisions as well due to the lack of financial literacy as a child which ended up enormously hurting
them overall. Indeed, these same adults now must live paycheck to paycheck, and many of them believe this
is since they had not been educated on how to develop financial strategies when they were young.
Additionally, a CNBC article states that many students are going to colleges and majoring in business, but
they don’t even know how to use credit cards or understand them. This shows that it is important to get
children started on understanding money in their childhood, even before high school. Additionally, an
article from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau discusses how children as young as five could learn
about savings and that some children might enjoy financial planning and take lessons from it that they
carry into their adulthood. Therefore, getting these pre-teens started early with learning about financial
literacy could serve them well and aid them in their future endeavors.

B. Project Scope
Purpose: Due to the problems listed above about adults struggling in their later years and many blaming it
on the lack of knowing about financial literacy when young, we decided to act, and allowed these children
to get started early with learning about financial literacy and financial literacy topics. Many students go to
college without a basic understanding of money, saving and spending, and the topics we discussed in our
project. By having these students understand money early, they are getting a head start ahead of their peers,
who will most likely not learn the information taught in our presentations until high school or college.

Rationale: We made a series of seminars for fourth and fifth grade students at Griffin Elementary School in
Cooper City, Florida. Here, our presentation consisted of an interactive Nearpod to go along with our speaker,
who kept the audience engaged by asking questions throughout our presentation. Additionally, we played a
fun Kahoot after each day where we had prizes awaiting the winners to keep them engaged. Each presentation
was about 45 minutes, and we did three separate presentations on three separate days. The different topics of
the presentations on the different days we did are listed below:

Day 1: How to manage Day 2: Entrepreneurship Day 3: Investing for the

money (Wants vs. Needs) and Employment Future

Expected Benefits:
These students will have a much stronger understanding of the topics of investing, employment,
entrepreneurship, and how to manage money. These are important life skills and by teaching these students
these skills at an early age will better prepare them and help them in their future. They will be more stable with

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 3|Page

their finances overall and may not have to be living paycheck to paycheck like other adults that were not taught
financial literacy skills in their childhood.

III) PLANNING AND ORGANIZING

A. Project Goals
The goal of our project was to expose children at an early age to integral parts of financial literacy topics. In
doing this, the children would hopefully learn something and spark a connection within them that they can
then use in the future. In addition to this, we would enforce what they know or do not know, which helps
foster new knowledge. With this newly gained confidence and knowledge, they will be at least one step
ahead of their peers and have a great transition into financially responsible adults who understand the
importance of money, how to earn, and most importantly what to use it for.

Introduce important
segments of financial
literacy that will be essential
for understanding more • Expose
comprehensive topics in the
subject.

Incorporate data,
information, and topics that
will cater to the children
making them want to learn • Engage
the material rather than
bore them.

Teach the children basic

topics of financial literacy
like a pillar for later
understanding and answer • Expand
questions and concerns to
deepen understanding.

Test them on what they

learn to embed the
information in their brains
as well as gauge their
understanding in the topics
• Exercise
that are introduced so what
they learn is not forgotten.

B. Human Resources Management Plan

The chapter project's primary presenters are 3 individuals who specialize in various specific areas. Below
is the quick introduction to the presenters and their responsibility for the project.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 4|Page

 1. Jay Nemec: Project Coordinator/Marketer (Managing Money)

Responsibilities
Jay's responsibilities were focused on setting up the project and the logistics of how the project would be
achieved. He introduced the project to the Griffin Elementary after school program as an opportunity for
4th and 5th graders to learn about financial literacy. He also made flyers promoting the project starting on
October 3 with plenty of time for those interested in attending and learning.

Strengths
- Motivated
- Adaptive and creative
- Problem solving and communicating skills
- Management skills

2. Dasonn Bailey: Project Researcher/Analyst (Making Money)

Responsibilities
Dasonn’s responsibilities were primarily that of gathering data for the project and figuring out what
information would be taught to the children. As a result, he established a curriculum that worked very well
with the basics of financial literacy and would not be too complicated for 4th and 5th graders. He was also
responsible for producing a pre-survey and post-survey to gauge the children's understanding and learning
of the curriculum created.

Strengths
- Motivated
- Diligent
- Well versed in money habits
- Innovative

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 5|Page

 3. Matthew Zayats: Investment and Communications Expert (Investing Money)

Responsibilities
Matthew's responsibilities were primarily concentrated on working out how to keep the children involved
and engaged in the project. With this position in mind, he produced fun ideas which included incorporating
games which were done with Nearpod, where the students could participate while the lesson was also being
taught on the screen. Additionally, he produced the idea of playing Kahoots, an interactive game, to test
and instill the information taught, and rewards to give the children a goal to win and learn. Being our most
outgoing presenter, he would help us to calm the children and establish the environment needed for them
to be successful and engaged.

Strengths
- Personable
- Easy to communicate with
- Well versed in investment and making money

4. Others who assisted

Not only our own members aided in making this project a success. We had our DECA advisors support
throughout and one of our advisors was present at our event. Also, we had Griffin Elementary School and their
aftercare program's support for our project!

C. Schedule
Milestones
Introduce the Plan to Griffin Elementary
After creating the plan to instruct the elementary students, we needed to contact the school. Jay, having
volunteered there for the whole summer, not only got to know the students ahead of time, but he also was
able to already create connections with the school. Jay emailed the IT specialist who he had worked with
and was able to explain our goals and intentions to teach 4th and 5th grade aftercare students financial
literacy. The IT specialist who Jay had worked with then forwarded the email to the aftercare program
director. Once they heard the plan, they were ecstatic and extremely supportive of the idea. Additionally,

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 6|Page

 this was perfect timing because the students at the school would later be having a field trip to J.A. Biz-
Town where they would learn other financial concepts as well.

Create the Curriculum

Once we got approval, we started creating the curriculum. Having to create a curriculum tailored towards
those in 4th and 5th grade, we had to turn a subject that some may not find interesting into something
entertaining while being informative. Matthew, having experience in
dealing with children, knew what we had to do. This would be done with
a Nearpod. A Nearpod is an interactive lesson website that shows
visuals and has enjoyable games for many students that help elaborate
on the material. By using a Nearpod, everyone would be able to see the
information presented and the images used. Between different portions
of the Nearpod, questions would be asked to see what the students
knew, and what they learned. We would then discuss the answers with the students to strengthen what they
learned or draw out an answer. Dasonn was responsible for establishing what would be taught, and each
topic was taken up by one of three presenters (Jay, Dasonn, or Matthew).

Create the Pre-survey and Post-survey

The pre-survey and post-survey were made through Google Forms. This way, all the data was able to be
easily collected. After introducing ourselves the plan was to give the students the pre-survey and then begin
going through the curriculum. Once we finished the curriculum, they would take the post-survey. This way
we could see if they had increased confidence and understanding of what we introduced.

Present the Curriculum

Each presentation would be a 45-minute session for a total of three sessions on November 1st, November
3rd, and November 4th. The first session we introduced ourselves, the pre-survey, the three sessions we
would be having, our rewards for learning and trying which consisted of candy after completing the
interactive games, and a surprise (trophy) for doing well in the Kahoots that were made following each
presentation. Each presentation was presented by one of our presenters based on knowledge and experience.
As a result, Jay presented Managing Money (Wants vs. Needs) on the first day, Dasonn accepted Making
Money (Entrepreneurship and Employment) on the second day, and Matthew presented Investing Money
on the third and final day. Throughout the presentations, prizes were given, games were played, and on the
final day, we awarded our 3-D trophies to the top two students throughout all the Kahoots and gave out
DECA pins to those who came on the final day.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 7|Page

 Timeline

Milestones August September October November

Introduce the
Plan to Griffin
Elementary

Create the
Curriculum

Create the
Pre-survey and
Post-survey

Present the
Curriculum

D. Quality Management Plan - Key Metrics

To make sure that our mission to instruct the kids was useful, we used specific metrics as a measure.

Key Metric #1
Our first metric to measure the quality and success of the project was the use of a pre-survey and post-
survey. Prior to beginning the curriculum, we had the students take a pre-survey where we asked simple
questions to get an understanding of what they knew and were confident in compared to what they
were not confident in on a 1-5 scale. Before concluding the final session, we then gave them the same
survey (what we called the post-survey). By doing this, we could see if confidence in the children
changed by a significant margin. Our goal was to have at least 45% have level 5 confidence in the
topics that were covered while presenting the curriculum.

Key Metric #2
Our second metric to measure the quality and success of the project was the use of Kahoot. We used this
to exercise what we taught them throughout our curriculum and gauge the students' understanding of each
topic. As a benchmark of our success, we sought to have a general average of 65% considering the difficulty
and time span we were given. What would result from this is better understanding of whether each session
was a success or not.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 8|Page

Key Metric #3
Post lesson, we planned to ask the teachers and administrators about what they thought about our project
and any feedback they may have for it. With the Kahoot, post-survey, and teacher feedback, we were able
to evaluate if the students were successfully learning about the financial literacy topics that were discussed.

E. Risk Management Plan

Potential issues and impacts, and our response strategy
There were a couple of issues that could negatively impact the efficiency and fluidity of the project.

Potential Issue #1 - Missing a Presenter

One of the potential issues that we prepared for was potentially missing a presenter. Whether they have
family issues, someone is sick, or any other issue that would prevent someone from being able to present
with us, we prepared for this scenario. If no preparation was made for this scenario, the project could fail
due to unfamiliarity in the session our presenters had not specialized in presenting. As a result, we took the
following steps to ensure this would not inhibit our progress of the curriculum that was prepared, and a
response strategy was set in place:

- We set up a gap to reflect on the first day and see if there is anything we need to improve
and if there are any updates on situations.
- All presenters were given a rundown of how the session would done and how to keep
them intrigued in the topic in the best way.
- All presenters received log-in information just in case a presenter who had access was
missing and would not be able to respond.
- All presenters were told how to set up the presentation so the students could productively
listen and see the presentation.

Potential Issue #2 - Wi-Fi Issues

Another potential issue was if the Wi-Fi went out. School Wi-Fi is often unpredictable. As a result, we
wanted to prepare for the worst-case scenario of whether when we arrive there is no Internet, or the Internet
goes out while presenting or testing. Without a back-up plan, this would interfere with our plans, and would
end our presentation completely because everything necessary for the presentation required Internet access.
As a result, we put some procedures in place:

- Our presentations were opened in PowerPoint to present on the screen we were offered in
case the Nearpod would not work since Wi-Fi was necessary for it.
- We prepared questions that could be asked and had rewards in place to keep the children
entertained even without the actual games that Nearpod offered.
- To ensure that our key metrics were able to be collected, we had paper prepared so they
would be able to write down their confidence levels.
- While doing the project, during one of our sessions, the Wi-Fi did go out, so we were
able to employ our strategies to keep the session going as best as we can, and we were
successful as a result.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 9|Page

 F. Budget

• The budget for the film was $60.97.

• The film was used to print the trophies that were given at the end
Film for 3D - of the final session.
Printing

• The budget for the candy was $10.95.

• The candy was an assortment that was used to encourage the
students to try their best as well as participate in learning. Those
Candy that did well on the Kahoots and Nearpods received candy.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 10 | P a g e

IV) EXECUTION

Day 1: Managing Money

We started day one of our presentations with the topic of Managing Money and how to differentiate between
wants and needs. We took out laptops and iPads used by the school and passed those out to the students.
They needed some time to settle down so we began to quiet them down while we set up our presentation on
the projector, as well as had them have the Nearpod presentation on their own screen so they could stay
engaged. We began our presentations with a brief introduction of ourselves, and the children seemed very
excited to start learning so we discussed the topics that we would be going over during these days. We then
gave them a short pre-survey as we wanted to identify what they thought their knowledge levels were on
these topics and how our results would be at the end of the presentations.

The pictures of the survey that were given on Google Forms are shown above.

Following this, we began our Nearpods and presentations! On this day, we had one of our members walk around
and take pictures, one member focus on the lesson they were presenting, and one member walk around making
sure that everything was going well. The students seemed extremely excited during our lessons, and we kept
them engaged by asking questions and through their many activities that we were able to do on the Nearpod.
Finally, we were able to finish off the day with a Kahoot, where the winners and runners-up were put into the
running for our big prize!

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 11 | P a g e

Day 2: Employment and Entrepreneurship
Day 2 of our presentation continued with the elementary schoolers learning about employment and
entrepreneurship. We began this day once again by passing out computers and syncing our laptop with the
projector so the students would also be able to see the Nearpod on a larger screen. We then made sure
everyone settled down and we began our presentation on Employment and Entrepreneurship. During our
meeting after the first day, our team had decided to keep one person walking around and taking pictures,
keep one person presenting, and keep one person walking around in case there were any technology issues.
After we got through our lesson and our successful Nearpod “Time to Climb” game, the students seemed
excited to play a Kahoot once again on the new information! During this Kahoot, we unfortunately had a
power outage, but we still had a plan in place to make sure a fair winner would be crowned for our big prize
and that the students would still understand the information. Finally, we allowed all the students a piece of
candy for staying engaged and listening.

Additionally, our pre-survey indicated that many of our students did not think they had a solid understanding
of these topics. Therefore, we had to make sure that our students were able to really grasp these concepts.
We tried to keep them engaged as much as possible and this seemed to pay off as we had many students rate
their understanding of this topic higher in the post-survey. Additionally, we had a high percentage of students
doing well on our Kahoot that was given at the end of our presentation.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 12 | P a g e

Day 3: Investing for the Future

Investing for the Future was our final lesson and our final day! Our pre-survey also suggested that many of
our students had a poor understanding of this topic before we explained. We made sure that our investment
expert explained thoroughly to really have the students grasp the concept of what we were speaking about.
Afterwards, the students seemed to understand the topics we had presented.

We once again began by passing out the laptops and putting the Nearpod on the screen. We kept the same
strategy from the previous days with one person walking around and taking pictures, one person presenting
the day’s money concepts, and one person helping anyone that is having technical issues. We then went
through our Nearpod and as one of our members has personal experience with investing, the students were
keen to learn and asked many questions. Additionally, we gave the students many chances to get prizes and
medals and many students seemed excited when they saw the trophies. We got to the Kahoot next where we
hit our aim for the percentage, we wanted to get from all our students. We then had the students fill out our
post survey and strong understandings of the topics were additionally shown through that. Finally, we
presented our winner and finalist trophies to the students with the best combined points totals from the three
Kahoots that were played! Our finalist is shown below on the left while our champion is shown on the right.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 13 | P a g e

V) MONITORING AND CONTROLLING

A. Monitoring
Schedule
We had a clear schedule for each day about exactly what we were going to do which was written out before
our presentations and during our plans of the presentations. Additionally, our group meant twice a week to
discuss our plans and anything else we believed we needed to do to improve our project and our plan for
it. Additionally, a member of our team worked with Mrs. Sanchez, the IT at Griffin Elementary School, to
verify the schedule with the school. Additionally, the curriculum we put together worked around what had
been and not been learned as this was a good leadup especially for the 5th graders who were also working
on other various topics of finance at the time.

Budget
We expected to spend about 75 dollars when working on our project. We stayed under this budget as it
cost $60.97 to make the two 3-D printed trophies for our winners, as well as $10.95 for the candy we
bought for the participants and the Kahoot winners for each day. We additionally used DECA pins from
prior years that were supplied to us by our chapter.

Project Quality
At the end of each presentation, our team reflected on what had been done well and what we believed we
could do better. We implemented what we could have done better in the following presentations which
helped our project quality rise significantly. An example of this would be that we noticed some students
getting bored during our presentations. Therefore, we used the time that we needed to start the Kahoot as
a short minute stretch break which seemed to get the students engaged once again.

B. Controlling
A major problem we had to deal with was the timing of our project. On our opening day, it was lengthy to have
all the elementary students come in and sit down quietly. We also had to pass out laptops and iPads to the
students. After this, we had to introduce ourselves and then quickly go through our lesson to get to the Kahoot
while staying in our time frame. After day 1 and our team’s reflection, we decided we would have laptops on
the desks beforehand and we would also try and have everyone quiet and ready to go so we would be able to
have extra time for our presentation. This helped us as we did not have to rush and helped our students better
grasp the concepts.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 14 | P a g e

VI) CLOSING

A. Evaluation of Key Metrics

Key Metric #1- The post-survey had shown a fully confident level above 45%.
Wants vs. Needs Employment Entrepreneurship Investing
Pre-survey 44.8% 27.3% 31.8% 40.5%
Post-survey 70.8% 54.2% 58.3% 58.3%

From what can be seen from the survey, the students had improved on all four of these topics. These results
show that after the lessons were given, many students had fully understood the topics. We achieved our goal
in all sectors as our goal was for 45% of students to be fully confident within the topic. Additionally, we were
able to see that many students had increased knowledge of the topics thanks to our presentations. There was a
26% increase in wants vs. needs, about a 27% increase in employment and entrepreneurship, and an 18%
increase in investing. This is important evidence when evaluating when the project is a success.

Key Metric #2- A success rate of 65% of questions correct on Kahoot Assessments
From the data given, we did successfully achieve our goal of 65% or above on all three days. Students were
extremely interested in each topic and then very excited about the Kahoot assessments we would give them
afterwards, and the students proved their knowledge through these assessments.

Key Metric #3- Positive Feedback from Teachers and Administrators

The teachers and administrators watching our presentation gave us positive feedback and strongly believed that
their students had learned more and got a complimentary review for their J.A. Biztown trip thanks to our
project.

B. Lessons Learned
Initiating
When the project first started, we had success in finding the school we wanted, Griffin Elementary School,
which was ideal due to its proximity to Cooper City High School. We had managed to get into contact with the
school and with help from the IT specialist and the aftercare director there, we were able to teach 4 th and 5th
grade after-care students at the Griffin Elementary Media Center. Our initiating for this project did not have
many problems apart from setting dates for the calendar there, which we eventually did also with help from
Mrs. Sanchez.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 15 | P a g e

Planning and Organizing
During the planning of our project, we were having problems deciding which activities were to be used as we
did not know if we would have enough time to do a game about investing or entrepreneurship. We then all
agreed that a Kahoot and inside games on the Nearpod presentation would be best. These offered faster times
with less computer errors.

Execution
The execution of the project was a struggle on the first day as we hit technical errors. One large problem that
occurred was during the end of the second day while playing the Kahoot when the Internet had gone out. We
ended up having to improvise and we did not want the learning opportunity to go to waste so we decided to
implement the solutions we had planned in our risk management plan. This was slightly more time-consuming
than just playing the Kahoot but thanks to the plan we put in place, we were still able to complete the lesson
on time.

Many students also showed participation and success in the topics. We were able to keep the elementary
students active by offering candies for daily participants and stating that a custom trophy will be offered to
the student with the most points and the person who had the second most points would be given a smaller
version of the custom. The trophy was customized by color, and the winners would be awarded a silver
metallic trophy with a dollar sign in the middle.

Monitoring and Controlling

Due to our team’s constant planning and our day to review after our first seminar, we were able to control many
problems and implement a plan to make our second and third day even better than the first. We were able to
stay in our budget which also worked out well for us and it also helped that we had other rewards such as the
DECA pins given to us from our chapter. Finally, we were able to coordinate our plan for our dates well and
the school seemed very happy that presenters were able to be there and teach.

C. Recommendations for Future Projects

The recommendation that can be given to future projects would be to first have more time for the project. While
the group did have over an hour each day to instruct the young students and were able to persevere in that time
frame, that time was quickly used up with technical errors and it would be less stressful if there was more
allotted time. One additional recommendation which can help for future projects is to assign a vehicle.
Fortunately, one of the students had a vehicle to drive, but for future projects, one person within the group will
have to find a dedicated driver for the projects.
Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 16 | P a g e
VII) BIBLIOGRAPHY

Laura Schlachtmeyer –. “Here's Why Childhood Is an Important Time to Learn about Money.” Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, 22 May 2015, https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/heres-why-
childhood-is-an-important-time-to-learn-abo ut-money/.

MFoxCNBC. “To Combat Financial Illiteracy, Education Needs to Start Early in the Classroom, Advocates
Say.” CNBC, CNBC, 5 Apr. 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/05/state-of-personal-finance-
education-in-the-us.html.

“Financial Education and Youth.” OECD, https://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/financial-

education-and-youth.htm.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 17 | P a g e

VIII) APPENDIX

We had to arrange dates with Griffin Elementary School, which we did through many emails with Mrs.
Sanchez, the IT at the school, to make sure our project would be able to take place.

Mrs. Sanchez ended up relaying our project to the aftercare director and she was excited about our idea
and thought it would also be extremely helpful. We then finalized our dates for November 1, 3, and 4 from
3:30 to 4:15 P.M. and our project was ready to begin. Our flyer displayed in the front office and throughout
the school is attached below. We also promoted the project on the social media accounts of Griffin
Elementary School.

Financial Literacy Project: Bailey-Nemec-Zayats 18 | P a g e