Introduction
At this point in the term you will have knowledge and skills regarding budgeting and taxation which will be necessary to complete this WebQuest.
You will often hear adults speak of budgeting and spending money responsibly, now it's your turn to show us you can do it! In this WebQuest you are going to budget to rent a house and save for a car as an adult would!
A weeks worth of classes will be devoted to you completing this WebQuest, however I recommend starting it prior to class and using class time to ask questions or clear up any things you are unsure on. If you do not complete it in class time you will complete it outside of school hours. This WebQuest must be completed by all students.
Task
The task for this WebQuest is to create a budget suitable for your income. You can present your budget in a word document, PowerPoint, Prezi or any other mode you see fit. You will rent a house and save money for a car; both choices must be appropriate for your income. You will also budget for day-to-day expenses such as food, bills, internet, phones etc. and to save money if possible.
In class I have issued you with a randomly selected sector that you 'work' in, such as mining, retail construction etc. This will determine how much money you are earning this year!
For the task you will assume that you have no children. Based on the house you rent you may wish to have hypothetical housemates. For example if your house has 4 bedrooms you may wish to have 3 roomates and all pay 1/4 of the rent together, or if you wish to live alone and you can afford it, that is also fine.
It is recommended that you justify your expenses with evidence coming from online tools that have been provided, or similar online programs. If you are unsure of some costs ask your parents or do some research!
Process
Your task is split in to several different stages.
1: You will use Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data to find your gross weekly earnings. The data you are looking for is Table 10i of the the Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, November 2015. Keep in mind the data shows amounts from previous years and other non-relevant statistical data, read the data carefully!
2: Calculate how much income tax you will have to pay, you should consider the Medicare levy, using an income tax calculator is allowed. To keep things simple assume that you are not declaring any taxible deductions or special considerations.
3: Find a house to rent and save for a car that you can afford. I suggest searching for various cars and homes and see which one suits you best. You must budget correctly for a car you can buy without a loan within one year. It is recommended you do not buy a car that is outside of your budget or a car which appears likely to break down or have excessive ongoing expenses.
4: Calculate how much you will be spending weekly on food, internet, electricity and other expenses you can think of. Figures can be approximated but must be reasonable. To go above and beyond you can justify with evidence how you reached certain figures!
5: Create a summary of your income and how much money you are spending, this is your final budget! Your final budget will be a weekly budget, make sure to calculate costs appropriately. You can choose how you want to display your budget.
Evaluation
Conclusion
You have now completed your budget, congratulations! By now you should be knowledgeable about budgeting and things you need to consider when making a budget. Keep in mind this is a simplified budget and in the real world you will have more expenses to consider! Most adults will have to budget at some point so I hope this was a beneficial insight to what may be ahead, if you enjoy it enough you may even decide to be a financial planner and budget for other people!
Credits
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2015). 6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, Nov 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6302.0
Australian Taxation Office. (2016). Simple tax calculator. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from https://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Host/?anchor=STC&anchor=ST…
Australian Taxation Office. (2016). Medicare levy. Retrieved 4 August 2016 from https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Medicare-levy/
https://www.realestate.com.au/
https://apps.ergon.com.au/HouseholdEnergyCalculators/Pages/GeneralAndHo…
http://www.canstarblue.com.au/phone-internet/internet/broadband/
Image taken from http://barberinsurance.net/personal-insurance/
Image taken from http://www.hardcorecloser.com/2016/01/salespeople-like-to-blow-money/
Teacher Page
This rationale will demonstrate the how this WebQuest aligns to ACARA and QCAA (formerly QSA) curriculum and how the pedagogy of the WebQuest is scaffolded through current educational research and Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.
This WebQuest is designed for the Managing Money 1 unit of the Year Eleven Mathematics A syllabus (Queensland Studies Authority (QSA), 2014). Specifically the "taxation, including taxable income, gross income, net income, goods and services tax (GST), deductions, rebates, and levies" and "budgeting, including the preparation of a personal budget plan" subject matter is targeted (QSA, 2014, p.11). This WebQuest fulfills aspects of all exit criteria; the "demonstrate application of sequences of mathematical procedures, with and without the use of mathematical technology" (QSA, 2014, p.34) component of Knowledge and Understanding is attained through using technology to calculate tax and the overall goal of creating a budget. The learning experience of the WebQuest directly relates to the Modelling and Problem Solving exit criteria of "Select and apply appropriate strategies, investigate situations mathematically, provide solutions and make informed decisions using mathematical reasoning" (QSA, 2014, p.34). Finally, the "communicate, present and justify mathematical arguments and propositions, using mathematical and everyday language and symbols to develop logical supported arguments" (QSA, 2014, p.34) exit criteria in Communication and Justification is addressed by students creating a budget requiring mathematical and convential written communication, and being required to justify how they made their calculations. General capabilities of literacy, numeracy and ICT capabilities are fundemental to the WebQuest. Literacy is required to read and understand the WebQuest as well as navigate websites and explore data. Numeracy skills are required and developed by the nature of the content and ICT capabilities of "Define and plan information searches", "Locate, generate and access data and information" and "Select and evaluate data and information"(ACARA, n.d., p.2) are directly addressed by the WebQuest.
To facilitate these outcomes the WebQuest is grounded in contemporary educational research and created through the lens of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (BRT). Current educational research (Killen, 2013; Churchill, 2011) highlights the importance of content that is engaging, challenging, socially and culturally relevant and directly applicable to the lives of students. Research based practices are complimented by utilising education theories such as BRT. BRT asserts that tasks which allow students to create, analyse, evaluate and apply knowledge require deeper thought and are more beneficial than simply remembering and understanding isolated content (Amer, 2006). This is why the WebQuest is significantly more effective than what could be achieved by teaching isolated budgeting 'skills' through 'traditional' pedagogy. Pedagogy that would require students to simply complete short budgeting questions would likely be boring and perhaps seems irrelevant to students. However a student-driven WebQuest gives the locus of control to the students in a mode that they can access anywhere with an internet connection. Thus this WebQuest provides a learning experience that aligns to the Year 11 Mathematics A syllabus, fulfills aspects of all exit criteria and general capabilities such as literacy, numeracy and ICT capabilities and reflects modern educational research and theories in an activity students likely view as relevant and enjoyable.
References:
Amer, A. (2006). Reflections on Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 4(1), 213-230.
Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.). Information and Communication Technology Capability Learning Continuum. Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/_resources/General_capabilities_-_ICT_-_learnin…
Churchill, R., Ferguson, P., Godinho, S., Johnson, N.F., Keddie, A., Letts, W., Mackay, J., McGill, M., Moss, J., Nagel, M.C., Nicholson, P., & Vick, M. (2013). Teaching: making a difference ( 2nd edn.) Milton: Wiley.
Killen, R. (2013). Effective teaching strategies: lessons from research and practice. Melbourne: Cengage learning.
Queensland Studies Authority (2014). Senior Syllabus Mathematics A. Retrieved from https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior/snr_maths_a_08_syll.pdf