What other skill sets for middle school students can be introduced during the Stock Market Game?

Question

The Stock Market Game has been a staple in mathematics and economics curricula for quite some time.

There are a number of different skill sets that can be taught to middle school students (grades 6-8) using such a project, which I think would include basic statistics (tables of data, mean, median, percents), basic accounting principles (balance sheets), data visualization (scatter plots, bar charts), pre-algebra/basic algebra (plotting, linear fitting, very basic extrapolation), etc.

Which other skills at the middle school level, particular dealing with such matters as "number sense", can be taught using the Stock Market Game (or its generic equivalent)?

The site itself seems to have some lessons, but they are only open to those teams that are actively registered for the contest, as far as I could tell.

Answer 1

Which other skills at the middle school level, particular dealing with such matters as "number sense", can be taught using the Stock Market Game (or its generic equivalent)?

I would say that "measures of equivalence" can be taught using the Stock Market Game.

In the amateur investing world, it's easy to believe that a \$5 stock is cheap and a \$100 stock is expensive (relatively). I think it's useful to have students develop an understanding of "appropriate measure". Which is stock is cheaper? The \$5 stock or the \$100 stock? How can we compare one to another?

A non-stock market related example would be the length of a line at a checkout counter. One line is 20 feet long and the other line is 40 feet long. But is that how we determine which line is longer? Shouldn't we perhaps consider number of people in the line? Or the total number of items that will be scanned across all people in each line?

This leads itself into a larger general notion of "value". What is good value? How do we measure it?

If I needed one gallon of milk, should I buy the one gallon container for \$5 from brand MOO or two half-gallon containers for \$2.55 each from brand MOO? For most adults, the one gallon container is the better choice. However, when I've asked my (college) students this question, at least one student feels that the \$2.55 is better because "they are getting two things for cheap". We can find an equivalent age appropriate question for middle schoolers.