Prepare Your Students for Life

We've created a series of Life Scenarios designed to prepare your students for life after graduation. 

They're guided through a variety of real-life dilemmas such as: 

• Budget 
• Taxes
• Medical Expenses
• Credit Card Interest
• Bank Account Reconciliation 
• And Much More

Click here to download the Life Scenarios PDF or click here for lesson plans involving Life Scenarios.

What does Banzai teach?

Banzai was designed to help students learn to make smart spending and savings decisions. Specifically, you may use it to teach:

Core budgeting principles

• Living within your means
• Dividing income between short and long-term wants and needs
• Setting aside money for emergencies
• Preparing for upcoming expenses
• Making trade-offs to stay within budget

Account management

• Tracking balances of bank, credit card, and loan accounts
• Account reconciliation

We've developed two ways to use Banzai in the classroom: Using Life Scenarios or using students' own income and expenses.

Banzai Jars™

Many of your students likely kept their coins in jars when they were younger. Banzai uses a Jars metaphor to teach budgeting principles. When your students receive money, they use Banzai to allocate it among virtual jars. When they spend it, they choose from which jar to take it. This system, similar to envelope budgeting, uses a familiar metaphor to teach students to handle money responsibly.

Who can use Banzai? 

Anyone can sign up and use Banzai for free, without limitations, provided they are thirteen or above. It is particularly suited for use in business, financial literacy, and family and consumer sciences courses in high school and college. You may have students enter transactions based on fictional scenarios that we provide or they can use Banzai to track their own income and expenses. It's your choice!

While ocassional access to a computer lab is beneficial, Banzai need not be taught in a class which meets regularly in a lab if students have access to the internet from their homes.

Please note that, to comply with federal law, children under the age of thirteen may not use Banzai.

Case Study: Wasatch High School

Susan Edwards, a teacher in Heber City, Utah, was intrigued by the idea of using a web-based tool to teach students principles of personal finance.

Read the case study here.

Free for you, free for your students!

Banzai is available at no cost to you and your students. This includes all of the tools and other features listed on this page, along with unlimited lifetime access for your students. Feel free to use it in as many classes as you want with as many students as you want!

Access Anywhere

Because Banzai is a web-based application, there is no software to install and maintain. It can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet. Your students don't have to be in a school computer lab to use Banzai, they can enter transactions and complete assignments from home!

Setup is a breeze!

The free Teacher's Assistant tool makes it simple to setup and manage your classes. We'll automatically associate your students with the right class as they sign themselves up! The whole process takes less than five minutes.

Grading is a cinch!

Once your students start using Banzai, the Teacher's Assistant allows you to easily monitor their progress. Their work is displayed on a single page, allowing you to grade an entire class' work in only a few minutes' time!

Support

We want to make sure you have a good experience with Banzai. In addition to a series of free lesson plans, we've prepared support material to help you make the most of the system. And if you ever encounter an issue you can't solve on your own, our staff is available via email.