SUBJECT: Economics
GRADE: High School
TECHNOLOGY: Spreadsheet
Most
appropriate for 9th- and 10th- grade students in an economics course. This group often finds the textbook and
lecture information somewhat dry and difficult to apply to their lives and the
“real world.” This
lesson would demonstrate the usefulness of being able to read stock market information,
track market trends, and make buying and selling decisions based on those
trends.
This lesson
will allow students to:
On a daily
basis and over a given time period, research and record prices for four stocks
of the student’s choice.
Graph those
prices over time with a line chart.
Record
times and prices at which the student would buy/sell shares of the stock, given
a certain amount of money with which to work.
Calculate
how much money the student would have made or lost on the market had he/she
actually purchased shares of those stocks at those times.
Produce
records and graphs that describe the changes in stock values over time as well
as the amount of money the student would have made/lost over that time.
Produce a
brief report detailing why students chose to buy and sell what they did, when
they did.
Materials:
Access to
daily stock indexes (either through the newspaper or, if possible, internet
sources)
Spreadsheet
software on which to create records and graphs of stock prices and student
“finances.” The
instructor could supply a template.
Instructions
as provided by the instructor (see description below).
Lesson:
Students
will begin by choosing four stocks to monitor over the course of the project
(the overall length of this lesson is to be determined by the teacher). They may choose these based on any
criteria they wish to consider.
Students
will monitor these stocks for a brief period of time (perhaps two or three
weeks) during which they will record the values of each of the stocks on a
daily basis.
After this
initial time period is over, students will be allocated a certain amount of
imaginary money with which they will “buy” shares of each of the
stocks. The amount purchased
should be based on the initial monitoring as well as the students’ best
guess as to future trends.
Students
will continue to record daily stock prices, keeping track of how much money
they are gaining and losing given their initial investment. At the end of each week, students may
have the choice to sell shares of one stock and use the money received to buy
shares of another. These decisions
should also be recorded.
At the end
of the allocated period, students will create graphs of the stocks’
performance over time as well as of the student’s investments.
A brief
report will be written that verbally describes the graphs. Students should include the reasons
behind their initial investments and their subsequent buying and selling
choices.
If the
lesson is completed successfully, students will:
Produce a
graph that describes the prices of the chosen stocks on a daily basis over a
given amount of time.
Produce a
graph that describes the amount of “money” the student has over
time, reflecting buying and selling choices over the time period.
Produce a
written report verbally describing the graphs as well as providing an explanation
as to the choices made by the student when buying and selling. For example, choices may be influenced
by a stock’s past performance and a guess as to its future performance,
or by items in the news (such as a company strike or merger).
Demonstrate
practical application of textbook and lecture material in the “real
world” of buying and selling sticks.