7 Reasons Teachers Enjoy Using the DIMS SCORE® Calculator in the Classroom
In-school personal finance lessons are on the rise. Thanks to initiatives such as #Mission2030 and those undertaken by various state and provincial governments, more high school students than ever will close out the 24/25 academic year with at least a half-semester of personal finance education, which is fantastic!
But we don’t start any other subject “in the middle.” We learn the alphabet and then how to read. We learn about numbers and then how to do math. What comes before learning to budget, invest, compare interest rates, or manage asset (e.g., first car) depreciation for today’s high school students? Sometimes, very little. Great news: Thinking before buying could easily be considered the A-B-Cs or 1-2-3s of personal finance.
Here are the top 7 reasons educators tell us they enjoy using the DIMS – DOES IT MAKE SENSE?® SCORE Calculator in their classrooms:
1) The DIMS SCORE® Calculator is free and safe. Neither teachers nor their students have to register or cross a paywall to begin asking and answering simple questions about typical childhood purchases before spending money. We are a mission-driven organization. We’re not trying to generate a revenue stream. We’re working to eliminate basic financial illiteracy.
2) It’s efficient. Gifting Sense workshops don’t impose an undue burden on either teacher or classroom schedules. With as little as 30 minutes of prep time and 40 minutes of class time, students can be introduced to the powerful habit of asking questions about money before making personal financial decisions. Bonus: students can’t help but pick up some jargon (which is only vocabulary without understanding) in the process. Teachers know what sales tax, cost-per-use, warranties, and return policies are – but their students may not.
3) It’s engaging! Thinking before buying makes learning about money immediately helpful. Teachers know purpose-led learning works best. Students quickly recognize they’re working on a problem that matters to them in real-time (“Should I buy this item or experience?”) when calculating the DIMS SCORE® for a possible purchase.
4) It generates a shareable summary of all the math and thinking students complete when assessing a possible purchase. This summary can be used to measure task completion, quickly force-rank possible purchases (from highest to lowest DIMS SCORE®), or even serve as the agenda for a relaxed, productive conversation about spending with parents/ guardians at home. “Tonight’s assignment is to tell your parents about this workshop!”
5) It satisfies Jump$tart/ CEE National Standards for Personal Financial Education. Educators can meet all the Grade 4 Spending Silo standards. All but one of the Grade 8 Spending Silo standards. And half of the Grade 12 spending silo standards for teaching personal finance in the United States.
Personal finance educators are looking for engaging lessons that don’t impose an undue burden on classroom schedules.
Students enjoy using the DIMS-DOES IT MAKE SENSE?® SCORE Calculator because it lets them work on a problem that matters to them in real-time: “Should I buy this item or experience?”
6) It satisfies social-emotional learning (SEL) expectations by strand, which can be challenging to accomplish in math class. By naturally revealing the benefits of even a quick “pause before purchase,” the DIMS SCORE® Calculator paves the way for reflective conversations (both at school and home) that normalize the fact that money is scarce for many families and finite for all.
Both children who grow up with abundance and children who live with scarcity can (and should) learn how to become money-smart adults. Childhood financial legacy doesn’t have to be destiny. Our workshops help ensure this.
7) Finally, the DIMS SCORE® Calculator primes the demand pump for subsequent personal finance content and/or courses, which makes it a wonderful tool to employ at the beginning of a personal finance unit, however big or small. Once students discover that anyone can get and use financial information to make their lives better (avoid disappointment, reduce waste, improve family harmony, and protect the planet), they naturally want to learn more.
Thinking before buying is an easy-to-teach but powerful, sticky life skill. It’s capable of delivering a lasting improvement to the personal financial well-being of today’s school-aged children. Skeptical about how much an excellent simple habit, adopted early, can accomplish. Consider the history of oral hygiene. In 40 short years, regular toothbrushing and fluoride moved oral cavities from an early-onset childhood disease to a late-onset adult disease. Most grandparents had dentures two generations ago. Hardly anyone has them now! And not only dentists have been giving their children the habit of regular toothbrushing since the end of the Second World War.
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