How Exchange City Works

Exchange City is an interactive instruction program that reinforces students’ language arts, social studies, math, and technology skills by giving them real-life application. The simulation vividly illustrates the connection between hard work and tangible success while teaching responsibility, leadership, decision making, and cooperation. Perhaps most importantly, Exchange City helps teachers create learning environments in which students are given opportunities for real rather than imagined experiences, active rather than passive learning, and actual decision making with consequences they will bear.

The curriculum is presented in four progressive stages. First, teachers, parents, and volunteers attend training workshops on site at Exchange City. Next, students study a six-week classroom course about basic economic concepts. Everyone then travels to Exchange City for a daylong simulation where they play the roles of business owners, employees, consumers, and government officials. Afterwards, students complete an additional two weeks of classroom study where they discuss the successes and failures of their Exchange City day. Students remember Exchange City as a profound and exciting learning experience long after their visit.

Pre-visit Preparation

During weeks four and five of the classroom activities, students apply for positions at Exchange City. They are interviewed and then placed in jobs within one of the 14 shops. Those students work as a shop group for further preparation.

As part of classroom preparation, each shop group develops its own business plan, including calculating payroll expenses, advertising, accounting services, materials, rent, taxes, and utilities. Each group also completes a business loan application, writes a radio and newspaper advertisement, names their shop, designs a shop sign and logo, and creates a business slogan. The students also write an information article containing school or community news that will be submitted to a radio station or newspaper.

Exchange City Day

At the beginning of their Exchange City day, sample products are designed and produced by each shop. At the morning’s town meeting, the mayor describes the services available through City Hall, and the judge reads the laws and the fines for violations. Each shop’s owner/manager makes a brief presentation that includes the shop’s name and location, the goods or services that are available, costs, and where applicable, what goods are plentiful and which are available in limited quantities. The town meeting ends and Exchange City begins to hum with activity.

At the bank, each shop owner/manager submits his or her loan application and opens a business account. In the shops, students begin producing goods. Sales representatives call on prospective clients. News reporters sniff out story leads, while the police patrol Exchange City’s streets looking for lawbreakers. In the Multi-service Center, the student staff begins entering payroll information for each shop and prepares for the first payroll period. Raw materials are delivered, and shop signs are hung.

The first employee breaks are scheduled to begin right after payroll checks are delivered. The students’ first stop is the bank where they deposit their paychecks, keeping enough cash for planned purchases at the Snack Shop. All other shops accept checks or debit cards. As the first wave of consumers washes through Exchange City, the economy shifts into gear. Student citizens visit the other shops and return to their own place of employment. A second pay period occurs after lunch, with additional employee breaks scheduled in each of the shops.

As the day moves on, the owner/manager keeps his or her fingers on the economic pulse of the business and the city. Working with the bookkeeper, each owner/manager must assess his or her shop’s financial position. Are goods and services being sold at the projected pace? Will the bank loan be repaid by 2:00 PM? Who is late returning from break, and what are the employees doing? How do I deal with a disgruntled customer? How can I collect from the shop owner who keeps saying, "Come back later."

The day’s schedule includes regular shop group meetings. Workers review their progress against their business plan and make adjustments in strategies as necessary. The parent volunteer who is assigned to each shop helps the students identify their problems and successes and helps them to focus on problem-solving efforts. The parent volunteer works most closely with the bookkeeper, in order to ensure the proper posting of accounts. Parent volunteers consult and advise, but it is up to the students to carry out the day’s activities.

The Exchange City visit closes with another town meeting. Shops that paid their bank loans on time are recognized with certificates. Recognition also is given to those shops that finished the day "in the black." The newspaper staff distributes the latest edition of the newspaper, and the students prepare for the bus ride home.

Back in the Classroom

The teachers lead discussions and review activities that give the students an opportunity to reflect upon their experiences. The students balance their business and personal accounts and consider the success or failure of their plans. Were their prices or production quantities out of line? Could their advertisements have been catchier? Was their projection for their best seller on target? Have their career interests changed or been reinforced by this experience? How do they use what they have learned?

These lessons and activities reinforce students’ language arts, social studies, math, and technology skills. The lessons correlate to state mandates, district objectives, and community priorities and needs.

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More About Exchange City...

Exchange City History

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