<prompt> Human: Hi rpersonalfinance!First of all, THANK YOU for all of the amazing insight, suggestions, personal stories, etc. that this group brings to the table. You guys have been such an incredible resource in giving me the discipline to keep my finances together.I teach high school and Im on a committee that is designed to bring more career based learning into the core classes. For instance, we took a traditional physics class, combined it with engineering, and turned it into an Engineering Through Physics course. The school is looking to do something like that, but with Algebra and Personal Finance. This would be targeted at 9th graders.Normally these career based classes are targeted at students who dont necessarily do well with traditional learning: special education students, students with skill deficits, students with behavior issues. It would be fair to say that there is a perception that only the stupid kids get to take the cool classes. As harsh as it sounds, its kind of true. We water down the core class curriculum to make it align with the fun part. It gets our low achieving students engaged, but it leaves a good 75-80 of the population out of luck because there simply isnt intense enough. Reality is, test scores need to stay up.I was looking for suggestions on how to combine Personal Finance and Algebra, specifically for regular level students. This could easily be watered down into decimals, fractions, and percents, but I would really like to find a way to maintain the rigor of the Algebra class so that we can offer it to more students. It has to be beefy: linear equations, graphing, quadratics, factoring, probability combinations, permutations are areas that need to be addressed. Im still working on good budgeting skills, so my personal finance knowledge falls short.Any suggestions?  <response>: Linear equations: simple interest or savings in a piggy bank. Exponential growth: compound interest. Credit card interest, retirement account growth. Graphing: See above Quadratics: Break-even return rates; if you can choose a mortgage for x at y for 30 years, vs x at z for 15 years, what is the implied 30-year IRR? Looking at the equations for payment, PV, and FV computations, there are some good exponential things here too. May be worth teaching ex and ln. Factoring: If youre factoring integers, Id show RSA yeah, its not personal finance, but its potentially interesting. If youre factoring polynomials, see Quadratics above. Higher order polynomials can be had by playing with 20-year and 10-year notes. Probability: Theres tons of cool stuff in options theory here. Given a Options curve, can you reverse engineer a probability distribution function on the future stock price? Compute the probability distribution of 51 ARM pricing using interest rate futures. How does that compare to a 30-year note? From a more main street perspective: how bad of a deal is the lottery? Compare vs a simple casino game roulette, baccarat, or war?.Id start out with a list of learning objectives. For example: Learn how to compute probability based on combinations and permutations.Then Id figure out what examples you want to use to motivate the math. If youre stuck on something, repost! 