Camp Towne: teaching campers about business.

In the spring of 1991, the Consumer Credit Federation of America and American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. jointly sponsored a nationwide test of high school students' consumer knowledge. The researchers found that most high school students are unprepared for the many critical purchasing and money management decisions they will need to make after they graduate from school. The questions asked covered the categories of credit, checking and savings accounts, auto insurance, housing rental, food purchases, and car purchases. The teenagers tested were only able to answer 42 percent of the questions correctly - when they could have scored about 25 percent just by guessing.

Many personal finance experts believe in the importance of heading off money problems for today's children by teaching money management skills at an early age.

The Camp Towne program was designed to teach campers about financial issues. It is a unique educational experience designed for campers at a week-long county 4-H camp near the southern Oregon coast. The curriculum was developed to provide a new way for campers to gain important economic knowledge and to practice financial management skills in a relaxed, enjoyable atmosphere.

The idea was based on a program of the Young American's Bank in Denver, Colo. that was somewhat modified to work in a camp setting.

The program

In 1995, a $1,000 grant from the Oregon 4-H Foundation allowed the camp staff to implement their ideas by paying for consultations with bank personnel and by purchasing a variety of equipment and supplies. Camp Towne was held in July 1995. The campers were third through sixth graders, junior counselors were seventh through ninth graders, and counselors were tenth through twelfth graders. The group included 87 campers and 16 junior counselors and counselors.

The program objectives were:

* to identify campers' money management skills;

* to provide a means for participants to practice money management skills;

* to strengthen their understanding of money management, credit, supply and demand, roles of consumers and producers, and retail sales;

* and to provide leadership skill-building opportunities for counselors.

Campers took on the responsibility of operating a business, dealing with customers, and promoting their products.

Each camper received a paycheck and was expected to endorse it and cash it at the bank. Campers were also asked to develop a spending plan, keep an expense log, and open a savings account. Campers produced products to sell, ran the business, developed marketing ideas, patronized other businesses, paid bills, and handled their personal and business finances.

The counselors served as business managers and assisted the campers by writing payroll checks, scheduling employee breaks, seeing to advertising, and supervising workers.

Camp Towne businesses included a stationery store, pizza parlor, jewelry store, grocery store, radio station, newspaper, nature store, sports shop, video arcade, city hall, bank, 4-H toy store, and photography studio. Many of the businesses incorporated the camp craft activities. For example, at the stationery store campers could create their own stationery using colored paper and rubber stamps.

The goal for the businesses was to make a profit or break even.

The schedule

The Camp Towne program was woven into the 4-H camp schedule. The town was open for two-hour periods each midweek morning. The campers' schedules were rotated so that they could spend two-thirds of their time as workers and one-third of their time as customers. During the afternoons, campers rotated through money skills classes. These classes were activity-based, developmentally appropriate, and designed to build on the skills used in the town activity.

Monday

After orientation activities, all the campers and counselors met to hold elections for a judge, mayor, and two police officers; then, they voted on town laws. After Monday dinner, the campers and counselors set up their stores in designated locations. The store workers selected their business name and priced and arranged merchandise. Each business received printed checklists and forms for conducting business.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, classes focused on consumer-producer relationships and budgeting. The campers played a coin flipping game that demonstrated the flow of money through the economy and played "The Bean Game," in which they formed family groups and decided how their beans should be spent.

Wednesday

Wednesday's focus was on banking and record keeping skills. Campers learned how to write checks and added to their banking vocabularies by playing Banko, a version of Bingo, with edible candy markers.

Thursday

Thursday's class taught consumer decision making and included a blind taste test of cereals. A debriefing session was held at the last Camp Towne session on Thursday morning. Then, campers and counselors closed the business and cleaned up the area.

Friday

On Friday a final evaluation and a Camp Towne awards ceremony were held. Campers were honored for best record keeping, best saver, and best business worker. Parents were sent letters outlining the activities their campers participated in, and received a publication series they could use to continue the campers' learning at home.

The results

Identical pretests and post-tests with multiple-choice questions were administered at the first and final money skills sessions. The results showed an average 8.7 percent increase in knowledge, with 72 percent of the campers showing an improvement in their overall scores.

The town activity was evaluated by an open mike debriefing session. Campers and counselors gave good feedback about changes that could be made to improve the experience. Ideas included rearranging the business locations, changing business staff makeup to include a variety of ages and both sexes, providing clearer guidelines for management, and simplifying required paperwork.

The Camp Towne experience was a beneficial one for campers and counselors because they were exposed to a wide range of new economic concepts and learned rudimentary money management skills that they can use in the future. Although the program was labor intensive for staff, involving a lot of purchasing and planning, observations during the camp week and the post-test show that the efforts were worthwhile.

References

Brobeck, S. (1991). High School Student Consumer Knowledge: A Nationwide Test. Consumer Federation of America.

RELATED ARTICLE: Ideas for teaching money management concepts for 8- to 12-year-olds

* Include a money quiz, problem, or riddle your camp newsletter.

* Teach the concept of needs and wants by dividing the campers into groups and asking them to make a list of items they would need if they were living alone on a deserted island. Have them discuss their list and narrow it down to the six most essential items.

* For camp sponsored events, have campers plan the activity, determine the costs, decide how to raise the funds, collect the money, and calculate the profit.

* Play money trivia. Turn the whole room into a giant gameboard using colored sheets of paper as the path. Develop a set of questions and answers on cards and have the players be the board markers. Questions can vary from "Which president appears on the five dollar bill?" to "Describe the function of an ATM."

* Give campers record keeping practice by having them record their expenditures for the week, or give them a budget and have them use catalogs to create imaginary decorations for their cabins and figure out the expenses incurred.

* Cards can be a great way to reinforce credit and money vocabulary. Play Credit Memory by selecting 30 credit concepts and making two sets of cards, for a total of 60 cards. Place all the cards in orderly rows. Players take turns selecting cards until they locate a matched pair. The player must then correctly define the concept. The winner is the player with the most matched cards.

* Teach the concept of price checking by playing a version of Let's Make a Deal. Cut out a variety of consumer item pictures from magazines and catalogs. Mount the items on paper and put five or six items in an envelope. Each team looks at one envelope's contents and makes its best guess of the total cost of the items. The team that comes closest to the retail value without going over wins.

* Involve campers in fundraising activities. Use the town setting to create mini businesses and invite others in the community to shop there. This idea could replace some door-to-door solicitations.

References

Drew, B. (1992). Money Skills: 101 Activities to Teach Your Child About Money. Career Press.

Knight, S. (1993). Let's Talk About Money. University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.

JoAnn Mast, associate professor and extension agent for Coos County, Ore., holds an Ed.M. in health education from Oregon State University. She taught in the Medford, Ore. school district for 15 years.

Debra Minar Driscoll is an area extension home economics agent and associate professor with Oregon State University. She has a M.S. degree in home economics education from University of Wisconsin-Stout. She has worked for OSU Extension Service since 1984.