We only cover some basic economic concepts during this course as they will be going more in depth next year. I know my little trick works because the Social Studies teachers who get my students tell me they always know the difference between Bull/Bear markets without them having to review it!
Another way to introduce the students to the concepts of how stocks work is by playing a stock market simulation game. There are some really great online simulations and some students are very familiar with the stock market, but for our purposes, I just wanted a quick little in-class activity to get us started with this topic.
Students had 3 fictitious companies in which to invest $60. I always personalize the companies with the names of kids in each class, for example, "Tyler's Toys", which is a small but fun way for me to get them hooked. The pairs of students decide how many shares they wanted to invest in each company. We then rolled a die to see which company would be impacted by one of five random events, each event changing the value of the companies worth for better or for worse. I based the variables on real events that have happened in recent years:
Variables
Event #1: Study comes out proving your product has health risks, price of your shares drops by 50%
Event #2: Oprah features your product on her show, price of your shares increases by 4.
Event #3: CEO of your company is convicted of tax fraud, price of your shares goes down (divide current price in half, then divide in half again).
Event #4: Car companies across the country layoff thousands of workers, people stop spending as much on non-necessities, price of your shares drops to $1.
Event #5: Government gives everyone in America a stimulus check which increases spending across the country, price of your stock goes up by $3.
The goal was to gain money with smart investments, understand that playing the stock market is risky, and practice a little math (they had to calculate the new value of their stocks after each event).
