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Introduction
The Scenario:
You've just graduated from college and earned a bachelor's degree. (You are not allowed to have completed any more school, you have NO PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCE and your parents have kicked you out, time to fly solo) Welcome to the real world! In this WebQuest you will journey down the road of life and think about what your life will be like in five years. Visualize all the details: your family, your home, your career, your vehicle, etc. The main questions that this WebQuest will answer are "How will my future unfold?" and "How can I make ends meet?" The more you put into this WebQuest, the more prepared and certain you will be about your future.
In order to be better prepared, you will
research an occupation of your choice
get a job
find a place to live
buy a vehicle
create a budget
forecast your net worth in five years
present your experiences to your peers using PowerPoint
Using online resources, you will research an occupation that most interests you, find a job, buy a new or used vehicle, and find a place to live. You will also calculate your net monthly pay using an existing Excel spreadsheet and then develop a monthly budget using Excel based on your salary and monthly expenses. Finally, you will share your experiences in the form of a PowerPoint slideshow. (Look at the rubric to ensure you include all necessary components of each assignment). Each assignment should be a separate page, and unless noted should have a paragraph accompanying it, completely answering all information asked of you.
| 1. | Research an occupation of your choice using the following website: Occupational Outlook Handbook. Write a brief paragraph about the pros and cons of this occupation. Include information about: schooling, working conditions, employment, job outlook and salary. (Assignment 1) |
| 2. | Find a job and a new job location* using the following websites: http://www.iasaedu.org/Jobbank/default.htm (Illinois teaching jobs) (It may be helpful to print out the page from the website, and then when you type up your paragraph you will still have the information) (Assignment 2) |
| *The following websites may be helpful when researching a community in which to live: http://www.moving.com/tools/costofliving/default.asp http://monstermoving.com/find_a_place/cityprofile/ |
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| **The following websites may be helpful in determining salary if the salary is not listed in your job description. http://www.salary.com http://www.salarysource.com |
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3. |
Click on the link below to open an Excel spreadsheet that will calculate your net monthly income (take home pay). Print out your results. (A paragraph is not required but unique formatting and titles are necessary) (Assignment 3) Take Home Pay |
| 4. | Buy a vehicle, new or used, from the following website: Obtain a picture of your car, purchase price, ammenities, features and any special dealer incentives or rebates that you are eligible for. Dealer rebates and incentives are usually only available on new cars. (Assignment 4) |
5. |
Your rich Uncle Fred gave you $1000.00 to use towards the down payment of this vehicle. Go to the following website to calculate your monthly payments: (Assignment 5) |
| 6. | Find a home. Now that a job and vehicle have been found and a budget has been determined, search the Net to find a suitable home. First access the following website: (Assignment 6)
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| 7. | Create a monthly budget using Excel. Based on your salary and monthly expenses, show your net monthly income minus your monthly expenses to arrive at your excess funds for the month. You must include the following budget requirements: (Assignment 7)
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| 8. | Choose 2 - 4 different areas that you wish to invest your money in. At least one of these investment tools needs to be a stock. (For each stock you need to state the buying price, type of stock, previous trend of the stock, number of shares, and why you are purchasing it. The same sort of rationale should be present for each investment tool you use) (Assignment 8) |
9. |
Update your budget to reflect your investments & if necessary revise your budget (or find a new home) if the first budget did not balance. Print this updated budget.
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| 10. | Create a chart using your most recent monthly budget. Use an appropriate chart type to best represent your data. Print this chart. (Assignment 10)
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11. |
Create a PowerPoint slide show from the information you have gathered. It must include at least 8 slides with transitions, be visually appealing, and may include sound and custom animation. You must have a title slide and slides on your career, home, vehicle, budget, graph, net worth, and any other interesting finds. Print your slide show as handouts with 6 slides per page. (Assignment 11) |
| 12. | Present your presentation to the class. Must be familiar with with material, have good eye contact, clear voice projection and be professional. Use the slides as a guide and explain the information you have presented, DO NOT read directly from the slides. (Assignment 12)
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| 13. | In a 3-ring folder, neatly assemble all assignments together in the order assigned. Label each paper in the top right hand corner with the assignment number. There should be a minimum of one print out per assignment, some assignments will have two or three pages. (Assignment 13) |
| 14. | Hand in your assignment by the date assigned. All assignments must be completed for assignment to be considered "on - time". (Assignment 14) |
| Assignment | Assignment Description | Point Value |
| 1 | Pros & Cons Career Paragraph | 15 |
| 2 | Job Description, City, Salary | 15 |
| 3 | Take Home Pay Spreadsheet | 15 |
| 4 | Vehicle Picture & Purchase Price | 15 |
| 5 | Car Loan Calculation | 15 |
| 6 | Home Picture Plus Address, Amenities, Cost | 15 |
| 7 | Monthly Budget | 15 |
| 8 | Diversifiying Investments | 15 |
| 9 | Updated Monthly Budget | 15 |
| 10 | Chart | 15 |
| 11 | PowerPoint Slides | 15 |
| 12 | Slide Presentation | 15 |
| 13 | Assignment Packet | 15 |
| 14 | Completing Assignment on Time | 5 |
| Total Points | 200 |
Many of you will find that you may need extra points on this assignment, it is not as easy as you might at first think. Below I have listed just a few of the additional activities you can complete to earn yourself extra points. Be sure to include them in your table of contents, you may complete as many of these as you would like, but I will only award points if they are completely and well.
1. Create a Pay Stub
On the computer, design a pay stub that would mock that of your first paycheck from your new job. Have it reflect your gross pay, net pay and tax deductions. Make sure the percentages you are using for each deductions are accurate.
2. Stock Certificate
Identify the company for whom you choose to buy stock from, create a stock certificate for this company. Do a little research to know what a stock certificate looks like. Dr. Hurst might be a great resource!
3. Interior Design
For the house/apartment you chose find the floor plans/layout and then illustrate how you would decorate your apartment. Where would the bed, couch, dressers, chairs and all other furnishings go? Would you paint your walls, get a certain type of picture?
4. Shopping Trip
Please describe what your initial grocery trip would include and prices of how much each item cost. What are products that you will need to stock your cupboard and are essential for every household. Give me a total on how much it will cost and did you budget for this much in groceries? Reflect.
5. Shopping Spree
Refer back to the interior design assignment, what furniture do you need? How much will it cost? Do you have a kitchen table? Chairs? Plates? Appliances? Do you have clothes appropriate for work? List items purchased and prices, also please include pictures and where these items were bought from.
Conclusion
Congratulations! Several things have been accomplished by completing this WebQuest. First, you have experienced using and creating an Excel spreadsheet and have developed an introductory understanding of creating a PowerPoint presentation. You have gained real-life knowledge about what it is like to have a career and many of the expenses that go along with living on your own. You should now have a short-term outlook of your career and savings goals over the next 5 years. Research has shown that success is more achievable when one has written short-term and long-term goals which are periodically viewed. I hope that you periodically retrieve the information compiled here and have achieved the success that you desire.
References
This page was adapted from Shellie Hughes' It's My Life WebQuest and Instructional Technology Consultants' Making Ends Meet: A Comprehensive Budgeting Project for the Secondary Classroom WebQuest and from Lisa Huddleston's "It's My Life" WebQuest.