Material Detail

Spent helped first year students studying principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics understand the meaning of poverty. Spent was assigned as an extra credit activity to be completed independently and concluded with a written summary of reactions to the simulation. Class discussion regarding the US Census Bureau's definition of poverty and the relationship to the minimum wage preceded the assignment. Students commented on the ease of accessing and playing Spent and on how little time the simulation required. Spent obviously captured students' interest because some students reported running the simulation (playing) multiple times by changing decisions/responses to questions. After completing the Spent simulation, students demonstrated the ability to distinguish between the impoverished and subjective feeling of poverty. Additionally, Spent made it easy to segway into discussions about other economic concepts like consumer preferences, social welfare and government spending. The simulation is also appropriate for intermediate micro and macro students.