Financial Literacy in the Classroom

In response to the 2010 Ministry of Education Working Group on Financial Literacy report that identified the importance of financial literacy education in supporting the success of all students, the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) has established the Financial Literacy Competition to assist in educating and promoting financial responsibility.

This is an exciting opportunity for secondary school teachers to engage their students to test and challenge their knowledge in personal finance and wealth management, as well as generating interest in furthering their studies in the areas of accounting, finance, and business. The FLC:

• provides an incentive for secondary school students to learn more about personal and business finance
• assists secondary schools in delivering and integrating financial literacy education into the Ontario curriculum
• fosters the interest of secondary school students in the disciplines of finance, accounting, and business
• creates a talented pool of secondary school students who will be confident in their financial security and well-being in dealing with an increasingly complex world of finance

Financial Literacy in the Classroom and the Financial Literacy Competition (FLC) have been developed in collaboration with Business Studies teachers within the Waterloo Region and Waterloo Catholic District school boards. We offer resources for students and teachers looking to explore financial literacy topics within the classroom or on their own as well as resources for those looking to challenge themselves by participating in the FLC.  The FLC  is offered to Grade 9, 10 and 11 students enrolled in high schools across Canada (excluding Quebec).

Our open resources include:

• Introductory quizzes covering most of the topic areas noted below.  Our quizzes offer instant feedback with the “How did I do” function so that your students can check their progress or explore that particular topic a bit further.
• 2 self-guided budget activities designed to get students engaged in planning their financial futures.

NOTE: FOR THE MONTH OF MAY 2020, OUR OPEN RESOURCES HAVE BEEN EXPANDED DUE TO THE CANCELLATION OF THE COMPETITION.  INSTEAD OF THE COMPETITION WE ARE OFFERING:

• ADDITIONAL QUIZZES (NORMALLY AVAILABLE WITH REGISTRATION ONLY)
• MOCK COMPETITION (30 PAST COMPETITION QUESTIONS IN 3O MINUTES)

For students/classes/clubs interested in challenging the FLC:

• teachers can register to obtain access to our competition site.
• additional resources to help students prepare for the competition are provided.
• the FLC will be made available online on the day of the competition.

Content of contest

The competition contains 60 questions (primarily multiple choice, short answer and sort/match/rank) covering a wide variety of financial literacy topics in the following areas:

• Income Management & Budgeting
• Banking
• Investing
• Credit
• Economics
• Accounting
• Home ownership
• Post-secondary education financing
• Financial ethics & safety

Whether you’re teaching an introductory business course or covering financial literacy topics in other courses, our resources are available to enhance and support learning both inside and outside the classroom.  Don’t have a related course?  Consider starting an FLC club to provide students with a challenging extra-curricular activity to develop and test their financial know-how. 

Start exploring our open resources by visiting http://uwsaf.mapleserver.com/uwsaf/. Although we welcome and encourage student participation in our competition, our open resources are available to explore at any time with no obligation to register for our competition.

Congratulations to the student winners!

We are excited to publicly announce the results of the December 2019 Financial Literacy Competition.  We hosted 849 students from 39 different schools in Ontario and Saskatchewan.  Students competed in one of two categories; junior (grades 9 & 10) and senior (grade 11).

Congratulations to our top performing student in each category; recipients of a $2,000 RESP prize for future post-secondary education.

• Senior – Justin Chu, Markham District High School (Teacher: Christina Lovell)
• Junior – Jesse Wang, St. Joseph High School (Teacher: Patricia King)

We’d also like to recognize our honour roll students in each category; recipients of a $75 gift card.

Senior Honour Roll
Vincent Hung	St. Augustine Catholic High School	Teacher: Patricia Brizzi
Aidan Dignam	De La Salle College Oaklands	Teacher: Michael Mattei
Anjali Chande	Mentor College	Teacher: Corina Alb
David Liu	St. Augustine Catholic High School	Teacher: Patricia Brizzi
Anoosha Kankaria	Etobicoke Collegiate Institute	Teacher: Stephanie Vink
Daniel Yan	Hillfield Strathallan College	Teacher: Yvonne Reitmeier
Anthony Menegazzo	St. Marcellinus Secondary school	Teacher: Andy Butkovic
David (Nguyen) Le	Etobicoke Collegiate Institute	Teacher: Stephanie Vink
Clara Ahmed	Mentor College	Teacher: Corina Alb

Junior Honour Roll
David Zheng	Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School	Teacher: Janice Cambell
Curtis Leung	Bill Hogarth Secondary School	Teacher: Nathan Shrubsole
Shreyas Nyapathi	Middlefield Collegiate Institute	Teacher: Alyson Pownall
Nathan Wong	Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School	Teacher: Janice Cambell
Fay Rushwany	St. Joseph High School	Teacher: Patricia King
Angel Auza	St. Mary’s High School	Teacher: Kate Randall
Yoyo Yuan	Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School	Teacher: Janice Cambell
Harish Uthayakumar	Middlefield Collegiate Institute	Teacher: Alyson Pownall
Suyash Shivhare	John Fraser Secondary School	Teacher: Yvonne Sousa

The top performing schools were:

• 1^st place – Middlefield Collegiate Institute (Teacher: Alyson Pownall); recipient of $500
• 2^nd place – Hillfield Strathallan College (Teacher: Yvonne Reitmeier)
• 3^rd place – St. Brother Andre Catholic High School (Teacher: Joan Osawe)

Congratulations to all of our participants!

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