Review2

Magnetic Money Kit

This months review has been submitted by Dr Paul Swan

The staff favourite for this month is the Magnetic Money kit. Many teachers have noted that with the advent of the credit card children see less and less physical monetary transactions taking place. The result is that children are less competent at handling money. For example, try asking your children to count back change after a transaction. ‘Shopkeepers method’ (or counting back change) is an important skill as it naturally links addition and subtraction and shows how these two operations are linked in a practical way.

The magnetic money kit contains notes and coins that may be stuck on a standard whiteboard or a portable white board. The notes and coins are large enough for a whole class to see at a distance. Individual students can come to the whiteboard and demonstrate their solutions to money problems. Small groups of students can work together to solve problems. For example, how many ways can you show a dollar? Students could begin with the obvious, 5 x 20c, 10 x 10c and 20 x 5c, but consider all the variations! If that is too difficult consider combinations of coins that make up 20c or 50c.

While there are obvious mathematics activities associated with the use of notes and coins, the notes may be used to stimulate society and environment research. For example, the notes could be stuck on a white board and small groups of students could choose a note and research the background of the person featured on the note. For example, who is featured on the $20 note and why is a plane featured on the note? [Reverend John Flynn (1880 – 1951). He was the person who helped to start the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The Reserve Bank of Australia [http://www.rba.gov.au/] website contains many useful facts and figures, including information on the people featured on the notes. The Reserve Bank also keeps data on the number of notes in circulation. For example, there  are 114 million $5 notes, 86 million $10 notes, 135 million $20 notes, 361 million $50 note and 159 million $100 notes in circulation. How much cash, in notes, is circulating in Australia?

The Magnetic Money Kit contains enough coins and notes so that teachers can demonstrate key money concepts to students and students working in groups have enough coins and notes to complete a variety of money related tasks. The kit comes in a storage container and the magnets are strong so that the notes and coins stay put on the board. The 5 cent coin has a diameter of 40 mm and the size of the other coins increases in size in proportion to actual coins, so they are large enough to be seen from a distance.

Note in Australia the dollar sign $ has a single, not double vertical lines in the centre. The US dollar has the double line.