The Beacon Cove Intermediate School media center was transformed into a small town last week, complete with a bank, wellness center and fast-food restaurant.
More than 150 fifth-graders milled about Thursday and Friday, writing checks, operating a bank and voting for mayor, as part of Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches & Treasure Coast’s JA BizTown Mobile program.
The program, which will continue through today at Beacon Cove, teaches students basic financial planning concepts and gives them an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in a day-long, virtual simulation experience.
To prepare for the simulation, students begin with a classroom study program, where they cover basic economic principles such as how to manage a bank account, fill out a job application, participate in job interviews and learn about their workplace.
After completing the curriculum, students spend a day in their interactive simulated town.
Each student is assigned a specific business and a specific job, which can include retail professional, accountant, medical professional and newspaper reporter.
"The simulation is the carrot at the end of the stick," said Corinne Pike, Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches senior programs manager. "Students actually are the business professionals, and they run the town for the day."
The simulation lasts about4 1/2 hours and begins with the students meeting in their shops and preparing their businesses for opening.
Once set-up activities are complete, the town’s mayor holds an opening town meeting. The CEO of each business is introduced and discusses the products or services they plan to sell.
Two-thirds of the students then return to work at their businesses, while the others go shopping. After a designated time period, the students switch. The goal is for each business to pay off as much of its loan as possible before the end of the simulation.
"It’s a great program to introduce kids to economics," Beacon Cove fifth-grade teacher Ariel Viera said of JA BizTown, which is sponsored by a variety of local businesses including the Stiles-Nicholson Foundation, BB&T; Bank and the Quantum House Foundation. "It gives the students a realization about the businesses around them. They provide the services or goods, and we provide the money."
Alex Banner, 10, worked as a beverage manager at McDonald’s during her JA BizTown experience Thursday. Tommy McCabe, 10, was a banker. Both gained a better understanding of the free enterprise system and how to build money-management skills.
"It’ll help me, because I’m learning how to write checks and do the deposit tickets," McCabe said. "That’ll help me when I get older."
"I want to learn how to work together and work in a community," Banner said.