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Exhibits Teach Youths About Money

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 10, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The young investment whiz locked her eyes on the computer screen and calmly clicked the "buy" button for 100 shares of Gizmo Tech.

With perfect timing, she added an instant $100 profit to her $10,000 inheritance nest egg. Her smile said it all.

Then, the market threw her a curve. Gizmo shares tanked, and by the time the dust had settled, her account was down to about $9,700.

"You lost some of your inheritance," said the teenager's mother.

"But I'm learning about investing," said the young trader, who hardly seemed crushed as she walked away from the stock trading area.

Welcome to MoneyVille, a free traveling exhibit that has attracted tens of thousands of school-age visitors across the country since opening about four years ago. This summer, MoneyVille's home is in Kansas City, Mo. The exhibit will run through Sept. 1 before moving to a children's museum in Houston.

Created by the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry in Portland, MoneyVille is a collection of about a dozen displays that aim to teach youngsters about investing, banking, currencies, global trade, credit and more.

Besides the mock stock market trading , another popular exhibit is a "money factory." Here, kids can create and design their own money with their face on the bill. There's also an anti-counterfeiting "forensics lab" complete with magnifying glasses and special lighting that shows viewers how to spot the real deal from a fake.

"If you try different lights, you see different images," said a mother peering over the shoulder of her son as he inspected a $20 bill.

Other areas are designed as an imaginary city with a bank, a shopping district and a lemonade stand.

'Get Real' About Finances

The exhibit was designed to teach financial lessons that revolve around national math and economics standards, and to promote skills in solving everyday problems. For example, a 7-year-old at the "Get Real" exhibit was trying to decide whether he could afford $60 sunglasses. "Sixty dollars isn't bad, but you'll have to pay off your credit card first," his mother said.

Another station helps children understand and appreciate basic household needs by comparing living standards of typical families in the United States, Samoa, Mongolia, Japan and other countries.

"We try to keep the content pretty timeless so that the exhibit doesn't get dated with fads," said Brooke Wheatley, the Oregon Museum's traveling exhibits coordinator. (The museum's MoneyVille Web site at www.omsi.edu includes money-related activities and other resources.)

Fed Offers A Money Museum

By the time MoneyVille wraps up its road show in a couple of years, it will have traveled to about two dozen cities, Wheatley said.
MoneyVille is not the only new attraction in Kansas City aimed at teaching children about money. Just a few blocks away, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's new headquarters includes a much-enlarged, more interactive Money Museum.

The Fed museum wants to put you in touch with money - sometimes quite literally. For example, try pushing a lever to lift a 27 pound gold bar. While you're lifting, the display shows the bar's current value, about $360,000 on my visit.

In designing the museum, the Fed used multimedia displays, colored digital lighting and a short movie to communicate "who we are and what we do," said Krissy Young, an assistant vice president for public affairs.

Since opening to the public early this summer, the museum has drawn from 200 to 400 walk-in visitors a week, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was here for the building's official dedication in June. No doubt the chairman, a proponent of financial education for children, was pleased with what the Money Museum has to offer.

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