Elementary school students get an education in money at Mini-Economy Market Day [Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.]

March 28--Sales were so brisk Tuesday morning that Isabella Lee and her business partners decided the best way to capitalize on the demand was to raise their prices.

The business pros, owners of 3 Cool Chicks, jacked up the price of their chick-themed pencils by 50 percent. The cost for face painting and for chick magnets also increased.

She owns 3 Cool Chicks with Andion Dizon and Emily Pearson. The partners manufacture their own products, market their company and are the sole employees.

The owners aren't savvy MBAs looking to capitalize on market trends. The three are fourth-graders at Colonial Trail Elementary School in Henrico County who've mastered the most fundamental concept of economics: supply and demand.

"When customers are buying, you have to do it," Isabella said, justifying the price increase.

The trio was among about 1,200 elementary school students who came to the Siegel Center at Virginia Commonwealth University on Tuesday morning for the Virginia Council on Economic Education's annual Mini-Economy Market Day.

Students from more than 20 schools from seven local municipalities attended the 11th annual event.

The day is the culmination of classroom projects that teach students about spending, saving, working and entrepreneurism.

Students spent weeks developing economies in their classrooms, working to come up with products and creating their own currency.

Suzanne Gallagher, director of the VCU Center for Economic Education, said Market Day and the associated classes are designed to help young people learn the basic economic skills they'll need once they are in the real world.

Students "learn that in life you can have money by having a job or you can have money by starting a business. Being an entrepreneur," said Gallagher, who helps put on the annual event.

Gallagher said it is imperative for students to learn how to deal with money considering all the financial decisions they'll have to make in their lives, including applying for mortgages, balancing a checkbook or running their own businesses.

Financial literacy education is not just for younger students.

Beginning in the 2011 school year, all high school students in Virginia need to pass an economics and personal finance class to graduate.

Audrey K. Thomson, director of development for the Virginia Council on Economic Education, said the organization is working to raise $2 million to train teachers and ease the burden on school systems.

She said the organization also is looking to introduce a Market Day in Northern Virginia.

On the floor of the Siegel Center on Tuesday, students hawked their wares from rows of tables packed with merchandise. The event seemed more like a Turkish bazaar than an educational field trip.

But there was no doubt the students were learning.

"Having a job is really fun," said Mason Ferguson, a fifth-grader at Kersey Creek Elementary School in Hanover County. "I hope when I grow up and us kids get jobs, it will be like this."

Mason, along with partners Thomas Vano and Frankie Uvanni, were selling homemade Frisbees and phone covers and offering customers a shot at a game of ping pong.

Other students sold stained glass windows, paper airplanes, scratch and draw pads and money holders made out of paper clips.

"I was pleasantly surprised," said Dan Trsic, finance leader at Henrico-based insurance giant Genworth Financial, and a judge at Market Day.

Trsic was impressed by the thought that went into the design and marketing of the products as well as how the students understood complicated economic concepts.

"They seemed to get it," Trsic said. "They brought up a lot of business concepts and showed what they had learned."

Annette Crowe, whose daughter Sarah is a third-grader at Ecoff Elementary School in Chesterfield County, said what she liked about the project was how well-rounded the experience was for students.

"It's wonderful that they get exposure to all facets of business," she said.

Fourth grade teacher Leigh Grayberg said the program is conducive to learning because it allows the students to get a real-world look at how the economy works but in a fun and creative environment.

"It's a learning experience and they don't realize it," said Grayberg, who teaches at South Anna Elementary School in Hanover.

But for Jonathan Singh, a fourth-grader at Jackson Davis Elementary School in Henrico, Market Day was serious business. "It's like we're learning about life."

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