City of Austin Budget Game | Where Does Austin Stand as a City and with its Budget?
Made by Mozilla
75 minutes
Students will analyze the current strengths and weaknesses of the City of Austin, in both its initiatives and financial planning.
Activity 2 of 7
TEKS
Gov 5A, 8H, 22A/B, Eco 15A, 20Language Objectives
- Students will be able to share information through listening, speaking, and writing in cooperative groups
- Students will use verbal brainstorming strategies.
Learning Objectives
- Students will understand how a budget is created and the importance of a budget both personally and at the local level.
- Students will understand how local governments generate revenue.
- Students will gain a basic understanding of how city projects affect their neighborhood.
Learning Objectives
- Students will analyze the current strengths and weaknesses of the City of Austin, in both its initiatives and financial planning.
- Students will be able to explain limitations and struggles in the construction of the city budget from multiple perspectives.
- Students will begin to construct their own budget that they think best fits the needs of the city.
Audience
- 13+
- Budget newbies
Materials
- A way to group students
- Projector
- Access to Google Classroom/Chromebooks is helpful
- Poster paper
- Handouts if not using Chromebooks
Vocabulary
- Budget
- Revenue
- Expenditure
- Property Taxes
- Public Utilities
- Service Fees
- Sales Tax
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1. Local Government Intro and Austin Strengths Sort
15 minutesStudents will read a general introduction about the city of Austin, its local government, and some of the current statistics that will be relevant to this project. As they read, they will answer two very general questions. This portion of the warm up should not take long at all -- about five minutes as students walk in.
After students have looked over the two general paragraphs about Austin, they will look at ten cards that have been created from the City’s Annual Financial report. These cards paint a rosy picture of life in Austin, and city. As students write down facts, they should also try to sort the cards into key parts of information shared -- tourism, services, etc.
After students have sorted and written down their facts, they should go back to their initial warm up sheet and answer the culminating questions, which require them to further examine what they learned about Austin, the perspective that was shared, and trends and themes found throughout the chunked report. This might be a valuable time to have a brief class discussion to share reflections and noticings.
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2. Budget Challenges Article Jigsaw
20 minutesWith their groups, students will look at the City of Austin dashboard. This will be a key tool for them to use as they are planning their budget in future classes. This chart provides a basic and clear way for students to quickly analyze where the city is doing well, and what it needs to improve on.
Students will take about 15 minutes to look over the dashboard data and measures, and individually take notes as they discuss key take-aways from the dashboard together. They will need to reference back to their intro cards for this activity, so it may be helpful to have them still on their tables/desks, or refer them back to the electronic copy.
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3. Dashboard Analysis
15 minutesAfter students have gained an understanding of revenue and brainstormed possible expenditures that the city of Austin might have, they will look at the Capital Improvements Program and attain a base level of knowledge about some of the departments that request money from the city budget. In order to do this, students will create a visual –either a poster or a google drawing—of a Capital Improvements Program their group chooses. It is imperative that no two groups have the same department—they choose on a first come first serve basis, through a randomizer, or through another classroom system you already have set up.
After students have selected a department to examine from the CIP, they will pull up their department information using the electronic PDF of the CIP found on Google Classroom (or through pre-made copies of department pages, if no electronics are accessible). Students will be given about 10 minutes to read about their department and become “experts” on it. Following that time, they will brainstorm with their group how to best summarize the department’s goals, needs, benefits, and previous expenditures onto a visual. They will need to include brief summaries of each question in their own words, as well as a slogan, bulleted request list, image, two symbols, two key words, and a graph. The poster is collaborative- meaning the tasks should be divided equally among team members and each student must contribute to the finished product.
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4. Budget Game Basic Intro
15 minutesStudents will begin to look at the budget game that they will play over the next class periods by logging on to the website in their groups and beginning to browse its features. Over the next class periods, they will work with their cooperative learning group to create a budget that they think best fits Austin’s needs and the needs of the district within their city. They will need a device to reach the website (just one per group this time). As a group, they will take about 10 minutes to get a base familiarity with the platform, its features, how to access different parts of the budget, and how they will begin to build their own. They will write down five take aways before they leave, and share them if time allows.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions for improvement? Email Chad Sansing, curriculum developer at the Mozilla Foundation.