Warren Buffett, look out! Students in Mitch Dorr’s government and economic class are learning about the stock market by participating in The Stock Market Game™ (SMG), a national interactive tool used to teach kids how to invest in stocks and bonds. (L-R, front) Ashley Deschampe, CeCe Olsen, Molly Zafft. (L-R, back) Alex Ditmanson, Dylan Quaife, David Bergstrom and Mike Sjogren.
This fall, students in Mitch Dorr’s government and economics class at Cook County Senior High School competed in The Stock Market Game(tm) (SMG), a national interactive educational tool used to supplement subjects such as math, social studies, and business education, while fulfilling Minnesota Graduation Standards. At CCHS, nine teams of three to four students took part in the game, along with 4,417 students from 97 other schools in Minnesota.
Student teams participating in the SMG are given a virtual $100,000 to “invest” over a 14-week period, competing with other Minnesota students. Each team receives online daily portfolio updates on their current holdings, brokerage fees, interest, and team rankings.
“While many schools have classes devoted just to investing and money management, we use this simulation as a supplement to our current government and economics classes,” said Dorr.
“While our students only get a taste of what it is like to invest money, I really believe that our students get a solid understanding of how the market works and the strengths and weaknesses of our current economy,” he said.
Asked how the Cook County students fared in the stock market, Dorr said, “It is a challenging competition as our class only competes in a time frame of weeks, instead of years like those investing to retire one day.
“We had some teams do very well, and we had others that invested in the wrong companies that took major financial hits in the past few months. I think our best team is currently ranked No. 16 out of over 1,000 teams. I think we had three teams in the top 100.”
CCHS was one of many Minnesota schools that received scholarship support from Wells Fargo, and were able to play the game at no cost. “Our Wells Fargo advisors have been delighted to work with the Minnesota Stock Market Game in helping students understanding the workings of the Stock Market. We have been very impressed with the interest of the students and teachers… and it has been fun,” said Dan Mirabella, Market Manager and Managing Director for Wells Fargo Advisors.
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