We gave the kids a background on poverty and minimum wage, and had them take a budget sheet home to fill out with their parents. This gave the students an idea of what their parents spend on the necessary things to live comfortably.
Day 2:
We divided the students into groups and gave them different scenarios with a budget of $909.30 a month to work with. For example one group was given the scenario of being a single parent with all the responsibility of daycare, rent, utilities, car payment, healthcare, etc. It gave them a taste of how it would be to live on minimum wage in Michigan.
Day 3:
The students were placed in their groups again and given about 100 notecards. They were instructed to build a tower. There was to be a prize for the tallest tower. What the kids didn’t know was that the cards had been stacked from the beginning. For example one group received a stack of notecards with all four corners cut while another group had all four corners intact. This represented the difference of wealth between financially stable countries such as the U.S. and the poverty of third world countries.
