5th Grade Students from Riverdale Visit Biztown!

May 2023 – Fifth grade students from Riverdale gained some hands-on experience that brought the elements of the “real world” to them! They visited Biztown and were able to participate in a mock town and economy. Each student was given a specific job, and they received paychecks, tax information, banking information, and more to learn how a real economy works. This Junior Achievement program allows students to explore all different industries, and they were able to engage with one another to keep their town running smoothly.

In Biztown, there were laws to be made, crimes to be solved, health resources, banking, shops, restaurants, volunteer opportunities, and more. Students worked in rounds based on what color name tag they were given for their job. When their round was over, they would head to the bank with their paycheck, and the next round would start, which involved shopping in Biztown in order to keep the economy going. Then, the next round would switch shifts, and the process would continue.

The “Election Commissioner,” Bradleigh Collins, shared that she worked at city hall to ensure that all the votes were tallied and the town was aware of the voting numbers. She was hard at work to get voting numbers up! She also said, “I’ve really enjoyed Biztown. It’s probably the most fun field trip I’ve had here. There’s just so much to do.” She also shared that she had fun at Biztown because she was learning and teaching directly with her friends.

As the “Chief Financial Officer of FedEx,” Gary Bailey worked hard to make sure that all the bills were paid on time and correctly. He said that Biztown has taught him, “Being an adult is hard, and there’s a lot of different things you have to do.” But, Gary still said that he had fun at Biztown, and it was a cool experience getting to be an adult for the day and work with his friends.

Real life fifth grade teacher, Kipp Lawton shared that for the past few weeks students have been learning about being members of a community with finances and local government studies. Biztown provided them the opportunity to dive right in and learn how a community works.

Check out more about Riverdale’s day at Biztown below!

Student Spotlight: BizTown

Show Transcript

For the past couple weeks, students have been learning about how to be members of the community, both financially and about how local government works. So they've been prepping on learning about their roles, and how they handle their money so then once they get here, they actually have a full immersion experience about a how a real community works, both of the government side of it and the financial side of it. And they all have these specific roles and a field here, in Biztown, so now it's all kind of come full circle you know. They're actually here working on their job handling their own money and really figuring out how a city actually runs. I've really enjoyed being at BizTown. It's probably the most fun field trip I've ever had here, and there's just so much to do and so much things like about being an adult and Basically I have to register all the votes and keep tally of how many people are voting. It's been working well. I've had like seven people vote already out of two breaks. I want to get more votes though. I've had fun today because it's been fun acting like an adult for a day, and there's a lot of fun stuff to do and you can buy cool items. I have to do like the money and pay the bills and stuff. I've had to work with the CEO and the graphic designer in the courier today, and the CEO helps me, and I can help him. And I can help the courier like sort things and other things when I'm done. It's hard being an adult, and there's a lot of different things you have to do. I've had a lot of fun because of all the like we got to attend two meetings, and like we've got to see all of our friends on the stage and making announcements and doing like like informing us about stuff at the businesses, and stuff I didn't know. And it's fun to see my friends be learning about that, and then teaching me. I like Biztown because it's a cool place to go to. You can see a lot of your friends there, and some of the jobs are super fun to do.

Published May 22, 2023 Print