A new primary school excursion program brings one of the world’s most famous board games to life, while providing students with an immersive educational experience.
MONOPOLY DREAMS Melbourne offers hands-on, curriculum-aligned learning about the mathematics of money, consumer and financial literacy, design and technologies, and humanities.
Spanning 1700m2 of dedicated space within Melbourne Central in the CBD, the interactive entertainment centre, under license by Hasbro toy and game company, invites students (and their teachers) to explore Mr. MONOPOLY’s Mansion, including his vault, gallery and 4DX Cinema, as well as MONOPOLY CITY complete with many of the properties players of the game will recognise, such as the jail, water works, and electric company
It’s a unique school excursion program that, with the help of experienced educational consultant and former teacher Sharon McCormack, is aligned to the Victorian Curriculum and includes a 60-minute guided or self-guided tour of the experience, as well as workshops led by enthusiastic and passionate educators. Pre- and post-visit resources for teachers are also included.
McCormack told EducationDaily that some of the money and financial mathematics activities involve counting MONOPOLY money, learning about other countries’ currencies, and detecting scams, while the humanities-related activities include learning about some iconic Melbourne landmarks, designing bank notes and creating title deeds for property transactions.
“It becomes a complete experience that digs into lots of different subjects.”
Learning to love their city
As the students move through the excursion, McCormack says the Melbourne theme underpinning the experience is highlighted in multiple ways.
“In the cinema, they see a film featuring highlights of Melbourne city highlights, relating to the part of the game that is really all about geography and the different uses and values of diverse spaces within a community.”
MONOPOLY DREAMS Melbourne partnered with kids’ pocket money app Kit to develop the Money and Financial Mathematics Guided Excursion Program component of the excursion. Kit’s mission is to accelerate the financial capability of young people by providing the tools and knowledge to harness the power and potential of money.
“Educators are always looking for interesting and different ways to engage their students and connect them to their education,” McCormack says.
“My approach to help create that engagement was about enabling the kids to connect with the character, Mr Monopoly. During the excursion, the students move with him through the activities. It’s Mr Monopoly who’s setting the challenges they need to work through, and they get to hear his voice, inviting them to solve the problems and explore. It’s a very Melbourne-centric experience that connects them to the place they live.”
Over a long career in the education space, McCormack says she has been involved in creating the programs for many school excursions, and says that, for primary school students, packing a range of learnings into one experience is always a challenge that aims to inspire innovative, creative thinking and problem-solving. For the students engaged in the excursion, she hopes it’s also about simply having fun.
“What I am hoping is that they come away with learning that’s related to humanities and geography, as well as the mathematics and financial literacy components,” she told EducationDaily.
“They get to explore historical and geographical aspects of Melbourne and when they leave the space and return to school, the resources teachers have access to means they can produce something within the classroom that’s an innovative way of developing their learning.”
