Learning about money online

I met someone at the 21st Century Learning conference in Hong Kong who asked about games that teach some of the basics of finance and economics. I thought I would share a few that I know about:

Zapitalism is a business simulation game that has been around since the 90's. It has been one of the most popular ones out there and boasts users that range from students to heads of corporations. In Zapitalism, your goal is to become a retail tycoon by taking a small store and building a business empire.

http://www.zapitalism.com/

If you have read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, you may already know about this one. In Cashflow, you are assigned a character to play and your job is to get to the point where your passive income is enough to cover all of your expenses. You do this by making investments, buying property etc... Originally, it was available on CD-rom but a few years ago, it was put online for free. It is a lot of fun to play and you can compete against your friends.

http://www.richdad.com/CASHFLOW-the-web-game.aspx

I haven't played Capitalism 2 but it was highly recommended on a number of forums so I thought I would add it. I am on a mac at the moment so couldn't try it. It's Windows only.

http://www.games2download.com/free-tycoon-games/capitalism2.htm (Windows only, I think. Recommended by haven't tried)

Lemonade Stand is a classic. It is very simple and doesn't take long to play. It makes a great, quick activity in a math class.

http://www.coolmath-games.com/lemonade/

Coffee Shop is similar:

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-coffee-shop/index.html

It is always fun to run a stock market simulation with students and make it a contest.  I have tried a few different ones.  Investopedia is a bit dry and there are better ones for little kids but there are lots of good educational resources on there and it is a good choice if you are teaching high school.

http://simulator.investopedia.com/#axzz1mVuqilrm

 

I will try to add more when I have a minute. At least this is a start.