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Financial literacy, luck add up to Stock Market success for Oxbow Creek students
Students at Oxbow Creek Elementary School in Champlin do more than just put two and two together to find success. They analyze and compute, research, strategize and execute financial literacy to make winning investments.
Wait. Investments? They’re in elementary school.
Working in teams of two to five members each, students invest $100,000 of virtual money in the stock market while building a fundamental knowledge of the global economy. Autonomously managing their portfolios, students can buy and sell securities as often or seldom as they like.
Teams of students in grades four through 12 throughout Minnesota compete to have the highest valued portfolio at the end of their session. By contest’s end, the Golden Boys increased their $100,000 investment to $112,000.
“We just took our $100,000 (virtual funds), bought five stocks and rode them to the end,” said Dominic as he proudly described his team’s winning ways with their investments in Tesla, Apple, CMG (Chipotle), Google and Nike.
But the boys didn’t just randomly choose the five in which they would invest. They researched financial history, reviewed graphs, sought recommendations and made an educated hypothesis about financial outcomes.
“And we had to agree. That was tough,” Aiden said. “One of the stocks Dominic had an idea and I didn’t agree so we — all three of us — had to talk it out and agree. We finally did and it turned out alright.”
The boys’ math teacher, John Wippler, said that agreement, coming to consensus and common understanding was a key life lesson the Golden Boys and all of the nearly 150 Oxbow Creek students competing in the Stock Market Game had to learn.
“That teamwork, coming to consensus … it was a unique process to watch and something that the kids can use in life,” Wippler said, adding that when forming the Stock Market Game teams he tried to mix it up.
“I hoped each individual could shine, one weakness could lean on another’s strength,” he said.
According to Wippler, in addition to strategies and careful selection of stocks during the four-month Stock Market Game period, “there's a lot of luck involved.”
“Some of the more disciplined and well-read teams finished lower but saw great growth (4-6 percent) from mutual funds and other pragmatic investments,” he said.
Oxbow Creek Principal Rolf Carlson talked about the value of the Stock Market Game.
“Anything we can do around the area of financial literacy with kids is positive. They idea that they understand the ‘American system’ is so important to their success in life,” he said.
Wippler said math teachers at Oxbow are “always looking for authentic, real-world connections to math.”
“I can ask the kids to do a two-step division problem, and they don’t get too excited about it. But ask them to find out how to manage Google shares with $20,000 and that gets them excited,” he said. “Multiplication, division, story problems, fractions … that’s all part of our curriculum and it wraps real easily into the competition.”
“The life lessons of saving and being financially responsible don’t have to be boring. It can be exciting and rewarding. And these kids realize that,” Wippler said.
In addition to the first place Golden Boys, four other Oxbow Creek teams finished in the top five of the statewide Stock Market Game competition. Those teams are:
Second place: Cheese Curds — Graham Aarsvold, Gavin Stahl, Max Kloss.
Third place: Pi Masters — Wyatt Hanson, Lucas Hooper, and Hugh Nightingale.
Fourth place: Diamonds — Alex Knight, Mason Tillemans, Jake Rekedal.
Fifth place: Super Stars — Briana Narine, Emery Taylor, and Taylor Zahalka.
To learn more about the Stock Market Game, visit bestprep.org/programs/stock-market-game.
Wait. Investments? They’re in elementary school.
All of those skills were put to use during the Stock Market Game conducted by Best Prep this spring, and five Oxbow Creek teams took the top five spots in the competition. The Golden Boys — a team of Dominic Jessop, Preston Sisomphou and Aiden Transue — took home gold in the fourth-grade division of the contest.
(Photo: Preston Sisomphou, Dominic Jessop and Aiden Transue used their $100,000 imaginary investment funds to “buy stock and ride them to the end” ultimately winning the fourth-grade division of Best Prep’s springtime Stock Market Game.)
Working in teams of two to five members each, students invest $100,000 of virtual money in the stock market while building a fundamental knowledge of the global economy. Autonomously managing their portfolios, students can buy and sell securities as often or seldom as they like.
Teams of students in grades four through 12 throughout Minnesota compete to have the highest valued portfolio at the end of their session. By contest’s end, the Golden Boys increased their $100,000 investment to $112,000.
“We just took our $100,000 (virtual funds), bought five stocks and rode them to the end,” said Dominic as he proudly described his team’s winning ways with their investments in Tesla, Apple, CMG (Chipotle), Google and Nike.
But the boys didn’t just randomly choose the five in which they would invest. They researched financial history, reviewed graphs, sought recommendations and made an educated hypothesis about financial outcomes.
“And we had to agree. That was tough,” Aiden said. “One of the stocks Dominic had an idea and I didn’t agree so we — all three of us — had to talk it out and agree. We finally did and it turned out alright.”
The boys’ math teacher, John Wippler, said that agreement, coming to consensus and common understanding was a key life lesson the Golden Boys and all of the nearly 150 Oxbow Creek students competing in the Stock Market Game had to learn.
“That teamwork, coming to consensus … it was a unique process to watch and something that the kids can use in life,” Wippler said, adding that when forming the Stock Market Game teams he tried to mix it up.
“I hoped each individual could shine, one weakness could lean on another’s strength,” he said.
According to Wippler, in addition to strategies and careful selection of stocks during the four-month Stock Market Game period, “there's a lot of luck involved.”
“Some of the more disciplined and well-read teams finished lower but saw great growth (4-6 percent) from mutual funds and other pragmatic investments,” he said.
Oxbow Creek Principal Rolf Carlson talked about the value of the Stock Market Game.
“Anything we can do around the area of financial literacy with kids is positive. They idea that they understand the ‘American system’ is so important to their success in life,” he said.
Wippler said math teachers at Oxbow are “always looking for authentic, real-world connections to math.”
“I can ask the kids to do a two-step division problem, and they don’t get too excited about it. But ask them to find out how to manage Google shares with $20,000 and that gets them excited,” he said. “Multiplication, division, story problems, fractions … that’s all part of our curriculum and it wraps real easily into the competition.”
“The life lessons of saving and being financially responsible don’t have to be boring. It can be exciting and rewarding. And these kids realize that,” Wippler said.
In addition to the first place Golden Boys, four other Oxbow Creek teams finished in the top five of the statewide Stock Market Game competition. Those teams are:
Second place: Cheese Curds — Graham Aarsvold, Gavin Stahl, Max Kloss.
Third place: Pi Masters — Wyatt Hanson, Lucas Hooper, and Hugh Nightingale.
Fourth place: Diamonds — Alex Knight, Mason Tillemans, Jake Rekedal.
Fifth place: Super Stars — Briana Narine, Emery Taylor, and Taylor Zahalka.
To learn more about the Stock Market Game, visit bestprep.org/programs/stock-market-game.