WILDWOOD, Mo. — Rockwood Valley Middle School students got to pop balloons with their bottoms, toss fake cash to their teachers in bunny suits and smash a pie in a teacher’s face while learning financial literacy.
The school was selected among 60 others nationwide to take part in the Million Bazillion Live! “Who Wants to be a Bazillionaire?” tour.
On Wednesday, eighth graders learned about savings accounts, checking accounts, inflation, how and why prices rise, among other topics.
The game show set up is based on the Webby-winning kids’ podcast called “Million Bazillion” from Marketplace and presented by Greenlight.
“We go around the country and it’s a lot of fun because a lot of times, these kids have never heard of the lessons that we teach them,” said Ben Grant, host of “Who Wants to be a Bazillionaire?”
Grant said he likes to see how much students do not know about money and then seeing their faces light up when teaching them a financial concept.
“One day when they’re adults (they may) think, ‘Hm, what did that guy in the red suit say about money?’ They might think of me,” he said.
Six students were divided into two teams, the Blue Team and the Yellow Team. Each team competed against each other on stage. They answered financial-related questions and played games.
The games were Risk vs. Reward, where students were taught how to manage money; Past, Present or Future where students were taught about inflation; and Bringing Home the Bacon, where students were taught about managing savings accounts that involved their teachers in bunny suits.
The Yellow and Blue teams earned points after each round with their peers cheering them on in the audience. In the end, the Yellow Team won. The team’s prize was to pie their teacher in the face.
Not only did students learn how to be financially responsible, one student learned a life lesson too.
“I learned that when you're down to never stop trying because we were losing at the start,” eighth-grade student Vincent Wolf said. “And once we kept going, then we won.”
Wolf was on the winning team who earned the opportunity to pie his teacher in the face. He said pieing his teacher in the face was fun.
“I’ve gotten in trouble a lot with him, so this is payback on him,” Wolf said with a smile.
The “Who Wants to be a Bazillionaire?” tour will travel to 62 schools across the U.S. this year.
For more information and to listen to the “Million Bazillion” podcast, click here.