Cats and sharks: gaming to learn about real world finance

By Ian Chan and Neil Chang

Of the many REAL classes that exist in RCHK one shines out with its odd title, and that is Money Money Money! But what exactly is Money Money Money? Well, let's find out by taking a deep dive into the class that is Money Money Money.

Students playing around with the game “Build Your Stax

Over the two-deep dive days, this Year 9 REAL class focused on teaching its students about finance, whether it be about debt or the stock market. However, their teaching methods were a bit different from the traditional way of teaching.

Unlike other classes, this REAL class used browser games to teach its students. Economics teacher Susanna Andreasson says that the students were more engaged in the topic through playing these simulations compared to her giving a speech and presentation on the topic.

The students were given four simulations to play so that they could learn about the different factors of finance. The first simulation they played was called Cat Insanity. In Cat Insanity, students are tasked with feeding a cat by tapping on them multiple times. If the cat dies then you lose points. This cat game surprisingly is an analogy of paying off debt, as the cats represent debt repayment, and if the cats die then it means that the student declares bankruptcy.

In the game “Credit Clash” the students had to manage their cards so that they could both live a normal life while being able to deal with bills. This game teaches students that it is always better to pay off debt before it accumulates to the point where you cannot pay it back.

“Build Your Stax” gave the students 20 in-game years and $4,000 to make the most money possible. This introduced the students to the general idea of the stock market and interest rates from depositing money to the bank.

Participating students said that they learned alot about debt, loans, and the stock market. When asked about the nature of learning by using simulations many responded that the games were more engaging because of the constant trial and error. Marco Croce, one of the participating students, said: “I think they teach us these- because if somebody just sat down and told you these things like ok, yeah but it doesn’t get stuck in your brain as if you play it.”

When we also asked Elliot Howard about how the games inform you about finance? He responded, saying, “In some of the simulation games it gives different scenarios: for example, if you went to the hospital because you had a bad accident and you need to take out a loan for hospital bills. So you get real-life scenarios on what to do.”

However, some sharks are still in the shallow waters as in the game, “Shady Sam”. The game focuses on you as the loan shark and you have to make use of math to get the most money out of your creditors. This is great for learning math and the nature of exploitation; however, the game itself is about a loan shark, in this case being the player, trying to exploit the customers who appear at the office. The image below also shows the dark nature of people trying to make money. In the screenshot below of the game, Shady Sam, you could see that the player has to choose from three different scams. The objective is to choose the one that can make them the most money but will make the other characters lose the most amount of money.

This game often shows the dark side of finance and how people will try to exploit you for personal financial gain, so this simulation is useful for teaching students how to not get exploited by others and how you must always read the fine print. This game teaches this quite clearly compared to the other games as it is much more upfront on what it is.

Nathan Chim says: “It does give me a full awareness of what might happen in the future negatively, and it does give me awareness and caution when confronted with these things.” What it doesn’t show you, however, is how different types of scams work, such as investment scams, pyramid schemes, etc.

But how is this information useful in any way? Many of the people we interviewed have responded saying that this information would be useful for later. They had also responded by saying that this information can help with dealing with financial problems if they come across any. As Chim concluded, “This information is important because it helps you learn about the topic which you might be able to use to improve the quality of your life financially so it makes it easier for you.”