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Video game teaches students fiscal skills

A new video game designed to help students learn to manage their money tries to make the dullness of balancing a checkbook look more like the thrill of driving for a touchdown. The game tests high school and college students’ fiscal skills in an online simulation based on the rules of the NFL. Students can score first downs, gain yardage, and score points by answering questions correctly. The level of difficulty varies, with questions like what to do when you run out of checks and the limits on an IRA. New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released the game, “Financial Football,” on Dec. 15. With the economy still shaky, it’s never too early to learn how to spend and save responsibly, he said. The game is designed to be played in teams. To score points, a team needs to correctly answer a series of money-management questions. If they’re wrong, a team can lose yardage. The team with the highest point total after four quarters wins. The game comes with two general settings—high school and college levels—and teams have options to pick tougher questions worth more yardage. The advanced, college version comes with a time limit: 30 seconds per question for normal play and 10 seconds for a kick return. Visa Inc. is paying for the initiative. http://www.newyork.financialfootball.com/games/trainingcamp/ff/ [1]