Teenage Boss - Series 1 (ATOM Study Guide)

Hosted by star mathematics teacher Eddie Woo, Teenage Boss sees a range of teenagers from diverse families put in charge of the monthly budget to teach them valuable lessons about financial responsibility and planning. Under Eddie Woo's mentorship, the teenagers experience for the first time the ups, downs, fun and fear of the real world financial challenges their parents have to face every day.

Curriculum Links

Teenage Boss is an observational documentary series that can be used to teach students about the value of money and the importance of financial literacy. Developing financial literacy skills and capabilities is essential in ensuring that children and teenagers are able to make responsible and informed decisions and are equipped to face financial challenges now and in the future.

The series is suitable viewing for students in Years 5–8. Teachers of Years 5 and 6 may find the episodes that feature the youngest participants are more appropriate for their students. Teachers are advised to preview Teenage Boss prior to use in the classroom.

There are fifteen episodes in the series. Each episode has a run time of 26 minutes.

This study guide to accompany Teenage Boss provides information and suggestions for learning activities in:

• English
• Mathematics
• Humanities and Social Sciences

Teenage Boss is also relevant to the teaching of the following General Capabilities:

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Ethical Understanding

Recommended link: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections/portfolios/ consumer-and-financial-literacy/

In completing the tasks, students will have developed a knowledge and understanding of:

• The nature, forms and value of money
• The importance of financial literacy
• How to make responsible and informed decisions about money
• The importance of savings
• How decisions about money and the management of money affects an individual’s and a family's quality of life

In completing the tasks, students will have demonstrated the ability to:

• Describe the spending and saving behaviours of the teenage bosses
• Analyse the financial decisions made by the teenage bosses
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the teenage bosses
• Identify their own and their family’s financial priorities
• Identify their attitude to spending and saving
• Evaluate their spending and saving behaviours
• Compile a budget
• Use their own written and spoken texts to explore ideas and issues and to clarify their own and others' understanding
• Respond to a documentary series both personally and in detached and critical ways

The activities featured in this study guide promote student engagement and active participation via individual reflection, class discussions and small group work. Multiple activities are provided to allow teachers to select those that will best suit the demands of the subject and the needs of the students. Each of the fifteen episodes can be viewed as stand-alone programs. There is an activity sheet for each episode. Suggested answers to the activity sheet tasks are provided.

ATOM has also produced a study guide for series 2 of Teenage Boss which is available here.