This weeks module over finance was very interesting. I have never personally taken a business course in college. I am terrible in math and excel is like a foreign language to me (hence the reason I became a dental hygienist since there is very little math involved!). However, now that I teach a course to my second year students that covers topics such as office management I felt led to complete all 5 courses under the module. I tell my students all the time that the patient IS our number one priority but dentistry is a small business and it has to generate income in order to keep the door open and to pay the overhead and their salaries!  I delved into the financial aspect of the course with hesitation because I clearly struggle with many of the concepts. After taking these 5 courses I feel better prepared to teach my students some basic information about finance....at least enough that I think they will understand what it takes to keep the doors open to the dental office. I will now be able to explain how the dentist will have fixed cost and variable cost and be able to give examples of both. I will probably implement an activity similar to the module in which my students will place examples I give them in a column labeled "fixed" or "variable". I will also discuss hidden cost and how letting dental materials expire or wasting products can increase the hidden cost.
One topic that I learned and found very interesting is that cash flow is different from profit and loss. I think my favorite activity was experimenting with the cash flow projection worksheet. One time I actually ran out of money within a few months because I was eager to buy and advertise for the business. I was able to start over and see how that affected my cash flow. I will definately implement this in the classroom with my students even though they really don't have control over that situation it would be good to teach them why the office is concerned with production.
The only difficulty I can think of in implementing these topics is that many of my students share the same fear about math as I do! I hope by having hands on activities similar to the modules and only giving a basic understanding will eliminate that fear in them.