Students learn science of stocks

Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA)

Mar. 10—Every boom or bust can send students rocketing up or down the leaderboard.

The annual Stock Market Challenge, a competition run by the Pennsylvania Council on Financial Literacy, gives players $100,000 of pretend money to buy and sell stocks.

The top three teams in each division of each county receive real cash prizes.

The program, which teaches students about investing and encourages financial literacy through hands-on activities, started Feb. 15 and will run through April 23.

The council uses the Personal Finance Lab, a stock market simulation from Stock-Trak, which is free for teachers and students.

In addition to trading stocks, the year-long curriculum includes a personal finance course and training webinars.

"The learning is the most powerful part," said Carolyn Shirk, vice president of the council. "The simulation allows the students to have a whole different experience and they often don't forget it. Personal finance education is something that individuals will use all their lives."

Through the third week of the 10-week competition, a team from Lakeland guided by Jennifer Pietryka leads the high school rankings in Lackawanna County with $160,537.17, and a team from North Pocono guided by Donna West leads the middle school rankings in Lackawanna County with $107,138.81.

Shirk is thankful for the support from Fidelity Bank, which sponsors the teams in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.

West, a seventh-grade math teacher at North Pocono Middle School, remembers the early days of competition before technology took hold.

"When I started back in the late 1990s or early 2000s, it was a pencil and paper version and we would mail it in," she said. Now, students get instant updates on the status of their stocks.

"I think the biggest excitement for the students is to see how their ranking is compared to their classmates," West said. "One of my students has made $26,000 so far. I haven't asked her what her secret is, but she's doing fantastic."

West aims to help students learn the basics of investing while having some fun along the way.

"My goal is to give them a sense of financial awareness and how everything that happens in the world is impacted on the stock market. It's also a nice break from our textbook once in a while."

West feels it's important to pass along her knowledge of the stock market to the next generation.

"My father was always into investing, so he got me into it and when we saw this competition I knew it was something I wanted to bring to my students," she said.

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570-348-9131; @rtomkavage on Twitter.

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