The workshops were developed for the NBP Money Centre in late 2015 and early 2016. Their purpose was to help educators introduce five main topics: the role of a central bank; the history of money; how money is designed and produced; the banking system and the way different currencies work; and how to recognise counterfeit banknotes.

Five separate lessons were created. Each consisted of a lesson plan and a set of educational materials packed in a dedicated case. The portable format was chosen so that the workshops could be delivered in different locations.

The project took almost a year to develop and involved a team of seven. We began by developing the concept and lesson plans for each workshop. We met educators from the Money Centre and external consultants who work with children on a daily basis. We wanted to check whether our ideas would be engaging, clear and, above all, easy for participants to understand.

The next stage involved preparing mock-ups of the workshops and running sessions with children. We were able to test them in trial lessons at a community school in Warsaw. Some concepts worked straight away; others needed substantial changes.

These observations led to the development of an extensive system of educational materials, including:

• the fictional country of Portonia and its currency, the Mila,complete with banknotes, coins, a newspaper, tourist brochures and other materials;
• a story about a counterfeiter,which participants solve while learning how to recognise banknote security features;
• an introduction to the design process behind banknotes and coins,ith tools that allow each participant to design their own 20-Mila banknote;
• an interactive game about modern finance,played on a board covering a large part of the room, with participants using an app on tablets;
• materials showing what people used as money before the introduction of fiat currency,designed for the youngest participants;
• a system of aluminium casesthat supports the educator and keeps all the materials organised and safely stored;
• a visual identitythat brings all five workshops together as one coherent system.

The workshops are still delivered at the Money Centre today. They have proved highly successful and have provided the basis for further educational sessions. Some of the original workshops have also been redesigned in response to the observations and experience gathered by educators over the years. The updated versions are also being produced, and will continue to be produced, for the NBP’s regional branches.

Project team:
Money Centre educators led by Katarzyna Rokosz; Paweł Kowalski, Aleksandra Żeromska, Kamila Niedźwiedzka, Nikodem Szpunar and Marcin Ebert.
Consultation: Wojtek Cywiński

2016