What is Exchange City?

Exchange City is an 8600 square ft. hands-on learning lab that has 13 different functioning businesses. Fifth and sixth grade students from schools throughout central Iowa run the city for a day. As students fill the roles of consumers, producers and entrepreneurs, they are able to learn first hand the economic principles that will shape their futures. Participating students will also learn important concepts such as responsibility, leadership, decision-making and team building as a result of their in-class preparation and visit to the Exchange City site. Currently, curriculum, materials and the visit are all free to the schools and students.

Exchange City brings the free enterprise and entrepreneurial business world to life for fifth and sixth grade students and creates breakthrough partnerships for transforming American education. Exchange City is a nationally recognized, innovative learning curriculum, patterned after a successful program that started in Kansas City in 1980. Through it, students are given a chance to experience economic education in new, exciting, and imaginative ways; teachers are given a new approach to teaching basic skills and economics; and parents are given an opportunity to actively participate in their children's learning.

Founded on the principle that students learn best by doing, the program combines a participatory six-week classroom curriculum with a day at Exchange City, where the students operate the town.

Richard O. Jacobson Exchange City

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Exchange City Calendar

Dick Jacobson & local Exchange City participants 

Richard O. Jacobson Bio

More About Exchange City...

Exchange City History

How Exchange City Works

The Exchange City Day

Exchange City Businesses & Offices

Preparing for Exchange City Classes

Presenting The Exchange City Classes

Learner Outcomes of Exchange City

Evaluations & Measures of Success

Volunteer Training & Registration

School Registration

Get Involved!

For more information contact us...

Wendy O'Keefe

Exchange City Director

Phone: 515.279.9602, ext. 214

E-Mail: wendy@jadsm.com

Exchange City helps students to:

• See the connection between learning and earning.

• Understand the value of money and doing a good job.

• Explain the interaction of goods, services, scarcity, production, and consumption.

• Write a business plan and prepare a budget.

• Fill out deposit tickets, write checks and balance a checkbook.

• Work cooperatively in teams.

• Experience the joy of active learning.