Financial decisions are serious. They can have long-term effects on well-being, including health, happiness, and relationship quality. But that doesn’t mean learning to make financial decisions can’t be fun.
For the past few months, the finEDge team has been developing five digital games to supplement the curriculum materials. The games include:
— Quest, a journey game that requires players to make wise saving and spending decisions in order to complete a mission.
— Realm, a fantasy game where borrowing decisions impact players’ ability to harness the awesome power of a mystical substance called fire fog.
— Working Like a Dog, a character-driven game that allows players to explore job-related decisions by taking on the personas of different job-seeking dogs.
— Squirrel It Away, a choice-based game that involves a squirrel character making risk-management decisions about protecting his acorns from wild raiders.
These games were designed after intensive research on effective game-based learning and principles of behavioral change. They are aligned with specific learning objectives in the curriculum modules and have accompanying lesson guides to help teachers implement and debrief each game.
These five games will be field-tested this fall in classrooms. If you are interested in participating in the field test, please contact Jenn Hockema at jhockema [at] uchicago [dot] edu.