Students in Pamela Morrison’s classes at Ben Hill Elementary are excelling in The Stock Market Game, an online competition in which they get to create a mock stock portfolio. Front to back: Fourth graders Jordan Kimbrell, Mayson Lovering, David Vaughn, Dameon Bell, Jenny Zheng, Kali Yates, Tybias Brooks, Tyler McCrimmon (standing),
and Liz Tillman.
With all due respect to the Merrill Lynches, Fidelities, and etrade.coms, stockholders might do well to start taking cues from a group of third graders in Fitzgerald, Georgia.
Students in Pamela Morrison’s gifted classes at Ben Hill Elementary have been making some pretty savvy buys during the last couple of months as part of The Stock Market Game—a twice-yearly national online competition that seeks to increase players’ financial literacy by having them build simulated stock portfolios.
And one of Mrs. Morrison’s teams is heading into the home stretch of the ten-week game in first place in Ben Hill’s region and in 174th place out of 3,000 teams in the state. These high-performing traders have put together an impressive list of holdings, including 500 shares of Verizon, 500 shares of Keurig, and 100 shares of CVS Pharmacy—all of which have been trading at between $40 and more than $100 per share in the last month.
Every Thursday, her students are eager to grab one of the desktop computers in her room so they can log on to the game’s web site and check their portfolios. They analyze their stocks’ recent performance and make adjustments accordingly.
At the end of the contest, they’ll be ranked according to the total value of their assets—which they were given $100,000 in virtual cash to purchase (minus the 2 percent transaction fee, of course). The top teams will be honored at a banquet in Atlanta in May.
Mrs. Morrison says she likes The Stock Market Game for many reasons: “It applies a lot of standards—in math and science and social studies and even reading and language arts,” she says. “Plus, they have fun. They like the competition with each other. And they enjoy trying to make money.”
This game is just one of the ways Mrs. Morrison has found to integrate technology into her lessons. Her students also are learning to use PowerPoint to make presentations right now.
And she’s eager to work with VARtek’s Classroom Technology Coaches soon to brush up on and integrate some Microsoft photo and video programs.
She wants to give her students as much opportunity to use technology as possible, she says. “These students are so much more advanced in technology than we could have ever imagined. … They can’t get enough of it. It turns that little light on inside their heads.”
Whatever her classroom technology aspirations, Mrs. Morrison says she appreciates the support and involvement of VARtek’s team at Ben Hill. “They’ve been great. Any time I’ve asked for help, they’ve been right here to offer assistance.”
Maybe Mrs. Morrison’s students could return the favor someday in the form of investment advice. After all, as of March 25, the value of the winning group’s portfolio was $108,301. And three cents.
Not bad for a team of eight-year-olds.