FinaList

Inspiration

Mistakes are the most memorable form of learning. Hannah made a mistake on a Biology quiz that she remembers to this day. Furthermore, there are many resources available on the web that many students are not aware of, which prompted our interest in making an app that incorporates existing resources in a more comprehensive way.

What it does

FinaList is a game, and it simulates real life. Students start in high school, and throughout the game they progress through real life and arrive at the various decision points that real people encounter. Each decision point has the potential to be easily managed through the use of an external resource (for example, obtaining financial help for university with OSAP) but it requires students to independently search for them, like a scavenger adventure. Throughout the game, there is a happiness bar that measures the happiness level of the player. If students are struggling with debt and living poverty-stricken lives because of the bad decisions they have made, the game will end, and give them extensive constructive criticism about their gameplay.

How I built it

We have not built the app, but we designed the decision tree through brainstorming on the whiteboard. We connected each event with real events that we expect to handle in our own lives, such as funding university and finding a job.

Challenges I ran into

We faced difficulties with deciding on one cohesive idea, because FinaList incorporates education from many areas.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are proud of our teamwork and creativity when finding a unique value point that differentiates us from other groups.

What I learned

We researched financial education while planning for this app.

What's next for FinaList

Next, we intend to move this into a school setting by adding it to the school curriculum and having schools ask students to play this game to improve their financial literacy.