Digital storytelling is a great way to extend and enhance project based learning! For my class’s financial literacy project, where students devise a plan detailing the necessary steps to open their own restaurant, I created a digital story using Adobe Spark to demonstrate to students the importance of being able to add and subtract decimals. This directly ties into TEKS 6.1A and 6.3D. TEK 6.1A addresses the skill of determining what math is needed to solve a problem, and TEK 6.3D expects students to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers fluently.
In the digital story I created, the main characters, Zach and Sally, must determine what math is needed to calculate their bill at the restaurant they’re eating at since the restaurant’s cash register is not working. They take out a piece of paper and add and subtract decimals in order to calculate the total cost as well as how much change they should receive.
I plan on showing students this digital story at the beginning of the financial literacy unit so that it gives students an idea of why math is important and relevant in the real world! The digital story will serve as a “hook” for the financial literacy project and get them excited for learning and utilizing math in a real-world setting.
To see the digital story I created using Adobe Spark, follow this link!
Teacher's Corner 