Occupy Student Debt
Gautam Sethi, Bard College, Center for Environmental Policy
This activity was selected for the Teaching Computation in the Sciences Using MATLAB Peer Reviewed Teaching Collection
This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Computational, Quantitative, and Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teaching_computation/materials/activity_review.html.
- First Publication: September 18, 2020
- Reviewed: April 13, 2021 -- Reviewed by the On the MATLAB Activity Review Process
Summary
This assignment allows students to develop a deeper understanding of the power of compounding. It also help improve financial literacy and students can gain a better understanding of the implications of their loan repayment plans on their financial burden.
Topics
Mathematics
Grade Level
College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)
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Learning Goals
Students should learn the power of compounding and how it can be tamed by even a small increase in loan payments. MATLAB is used to solve a higher-ordered polynomial.
Context for Use
The assignment is appropriate for any student of economics or finance who understands the concept of compounding and discounting. A student skilled in both economics and MATLAB should be able to complete the assignment in about four hours. In my course, this activity is part of the financial modeling module and I need to explain the basics of discounting before handing out this assignment.
Students need beginner MATLAB skills to complete this assignment. Aside from if-else-then control, fprintf, and basic graphing, students need to understand basic optimization and the use of the function fzero.
Description and Teaching Materials
Students should first master the concept of discounting. Students need beginner MATLAB skills to complete this assignment. Aside from if-else-then control, fprintf, and basic graphing, students need to understand basic optimization and the use of the function fzero. MATLAB is used to solve a higher-ordered polynomial. Even though this polynomial can be solved in Excel, it is easier to debug the code in MATLAB and much easier to generate various figures and graphs.
Occupy Student Debt (MATLAB Live Script 167kB Sep11 20)
Teaching Notes and Tips
Assessment
I gave this assignment as a take-home problem set and grade it on the basis of the clarity of the code.
References and Resources
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