The Economics Class at Cissna Park High School received a $500 mini-grant from the Cissna Park Education Foundation in the fall.  All twelfth grade students at Cissna Park High School take an economics course where they spend a large portion of the class learning about the stock market. After covering the basics of the US stock market, students create a Stock Market Game account where they can buy and sell stocks, bonds, mutual funds, EFTs, and index funds in real time. The grant covered the purchase of The Stock Market Game from a company called The Personal Finance Lab.

“The Personal Finance Lab offers a student game that incorporates lessons, activities, videos, and the ability to play the stock market,” said Amanda Henrichs, economics teacher. “All students start the game with $100,000 and work toward creating a diversified portfolio over a four month period of time. The game shows students their buying power, the value of their portfolio, their return percentage, and their rank within the class on a dashboard which allows them to see how movement in the market impacts actual dollars. The individual nature of the game allows students to make choices and then evaluate those choices to produce a solid portfolio with a large financial return. The Personal Finance Lab provides students with a great way to learn about market movement and how that movement is a strong economic indicator, both of which are great jumping off points for economics classes.”