What We Do
We create activities to maximize learning using a fresh, creative approach to teach students how to make money. We help students of all ages manage their own businesses, make decisions independently, and develop “autonomy” and the entrepreneurial spirit. We do this by helping teachers create student interest and excitement about keeping records and making money by playing classic, award-winning board games. The Ahhtomoney™ Learning simulations speed up the learning process because they keep students motivated. Students come to the classroom excited to learn. Our products create “ahh-ha” moments and help teachers teach students how to make the moolah! The payoff moment is when teachers hear their students say, “How can I make more money?”
Our Team
Dr. Neil Knobloch taught high school agriculture for 7 years and prepared agriculture teachers for 8 years. He currently serves as an assistant professor of life science education in the Department of Youth Development and Agricultural Education at Purdue University. He studies educator and learner motivation in the contexts of experiential learning. He serves as president of a family-based business, Actimax Learning, Inc., which creates educational activities to maximize learning.
June Knobloch earned her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Northern Iowa. She worked in private accounting for Rediker’s Furniture (Boone, Iowa), Atrium Village (Hills, Iowa), and Yoder Feeds (Kalona, Iowa). She teaches the children at home and is the office manager of a farming partnership. She manages the family-based business with the children’s help in fulfilling the orders.
Our children, Grant, Nelson & Kedron, love to help with trade shows, workshops, and fulfill orders. Grant is a future electrical engineer and loves to figure out new strategies to win the game. Nelson is a future wildlife researcher and he likes to turn every job into an adventure. Kedron is a future medical doctor and she makes sure every package is packed with care.
Our Story
Neil taught high school agricultural science and business for 7 years before becoming a professor. During his first year as a high school agriculture teacher, he quickly learned how difficult it was to teach agriculture business management. He used the Farm Business Management textbooks from John Deere his first year. These are excellent textbooks, but he learned that students do not learn this way. His second year he used the Decisions & Dollars curriculum. This was a wonderful, thick binder of excellent resources, but again, students lost interest after one week.
Frustrated, he went home and asked his wife how he could teach business management using a board game. He found the Farming Game, which he had “borrowed from his parents” when he left home. He laid the board out on the kitchen table and he and his wife developed a very similar set of worksheets that we will use today. He took the Farming Game and worksheets into his classroom and “Bingo!” It worked! His students loved it.
In 1997, the teaching idea was recognized as a state winner of the Iowa Ideas Unlimited Contest. At that point, Neil contacted George Rohrbacher, a farmer from the state of Washington, who created the game on the seat of a tractor. Five years later, George contacted Neil and asked if he could post the worksheets on a website. Neil said it was a good thought, but a impractical solution. It was good thought because teachers need teaching methods to make learning more active. However, teachers do not think like accountants so they would need a facilitator’s guide to effectively use the worksheets. Those who didn’t need a facilitator’s guide probably didn’t need the worksheets either. Neil and George met and discussed the idea of creating facilitator’s guide for the Farming Game. Two years later (October, 2004), Reap was published and Neil was conducting workshops across the U.S.
Contact Us
Actimax Learning, Inc.
4315 Commerce Drive, Suite 440-175
Lafayette, IN 47905
Toll-Free: 866.855.7327
Business Phone: 217.903.4200
Fax: 773.751.5225