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LILBURN--Seventh grade students at St. John Neumann Regional School have
developed basic stock market investment skills through a two-month project in
computer and media classes this winter.
Computer teacher Cherie Schaaf, with assistance from teachers Janis Taylor
and Colleen Ham, organized the new project which ran November through January.
Students formed investment teams and decided how to invest an imaginary $10,000
in the stock market. Applying and reviewing their math skills, students
allocated assets to favorite companies and built a final stock portfolio.
Following their companies in the news and learning how to read and interpret
stock tables in the "Investor's Business Daily" newspaper, students
prepared computerized spreadsheets of their portfolios and updated them weekly
with new stock prices.
At the project's conclusion, final spreadsheets displayed the percentage
gain or loss in value of each stock held and the overall profit or loss of the
portfolio. Students then wrote an analytical report of the portfolio's
performance.
Schaaf reported that the top three investment teams earned a profit of over
80 percent during the project.
"The competitive nature of American business was mirrored in these
middle school students as they researched companies and eagerly followed their
investments from week to week," Schaaf said. "It's a really great
project because there are a lot of number skills involved with decimals and
fractions--learning how to calculate amounts. There's a lot of social studies
involved," as well as English skills in writing reports.
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