Stock Market Challenge for Middle School Math

Every school year I look forward to beginning our Stock Market Challenge simulation. It seems like once spring rolls around, students need something different, and this stock market activity for middle school is the perfect fit. In addition to the regular daily lessons and routines, this Stock Market Challenge is fun for students and provides a great opportunity to teach the basics of how the stock market works.

To introduce this activity, I usually give a brief overview of how the stock market works, using an examples. I take an actual company (this year I used Nike) and explain what would happen if I bought 100 shares and then the price of the stock went up or down $1 per share. Once students begin to grasp the concept, I let them either pick a group or work individually. On the first day, their job is to fill out the Stock Information Sheet pictured above. Each group begins with $10,000. They pick out a company to invest in, decide how many shares they want to purchase, and then figure out how much money they have left over. In my experience, it takes them between 10-25 minutes to do this once they get logged on to computers and begin searching!

After initially choosing their stocks, I usually have them check in about once per week to see how their stock is doing. This can be a pretty quick check (5-10 minutes) that they record in their packet. In addition to these checks, I usually create a spreadsheet with the updated standings each week! This takes some time on my part to update, but I have found it totally worth it! It gets students excited to come in every Monday and see where they are in the standings!

Hope your students enjoy! For more ideas to keep middle school math fun and engaging for students, read about how to use math board games in the 5th-8th grade classroom.