Addressing Kentucky Practical Living
Academic Expectations And Core Content
with the Stock Market Game

 Academic Expectation 2.29:  Students demonstrate skills that promote individual well-being and healthy family relationships.

 Positive interactions in groups contribute to mental and emotional well-being.

 PL-M-1.1.1
Individuals have personal rights and responsibilities (e.g., cooperation, communication, patience) when dealing with others (e.g., families, classmates, teams)

Students will work in team to make cooperative decisions about stock selections for their portfolio for the Stock Market Game.

 PL-M-1.1.2
Conflict-resolution strategies (e.g., problem identification, effective communication, mediation, walking away) provide effective means for dealing with conflict.

Conflict can arise when students work as a team in making decisions for what stock to buy, when to buy and sell, etc. 

 PL-M-1.1.3
Communication, cooperation, rules, and respect are important to the effective functioning of groups.

Students learn consensus building using the simulation in teams.  They will need to have an "agreement" that the portfolio is a "team" portfolio, and that no team member will make transactions without a team Teams will work as a group and will need to learn effective communication skills, follow rules, and respect each other's opinions.

Academic Expectation 2.32:  Students demonstrate strategies for becoming and remaining mentally and emotionally healthy.

 People often need established strategies for remaining mentally and emotionally healthy. Application of these strategies also affects physical wellness.

PL-M-1.8.1
The use of appropriate strategies (e.g., assertiveness, refusal skills, decision-making techniques) are positive ways to cope with peer pressure.

 Using cooperative team-management techniques, students will recommend stock buys (or sells) for the team portfolio.  As each team member presents their "case", it is up to him/her to provide a "persuasive" argument backed up with valid research, and other team members will need to develop skills at "rejecting ideas" in an appropriate manner, i.e., offering valid reasons for their rejection in a professional manner. Students learn to build consensus building skills.

 PL-M-1.8.4
Using appropriate coping strategies (e.g., realistic goal-setting, effective time management, decision-making processes) promotes mental and emotional health.

Ideally, students should have at least 2 partial class periods each week to review their portfolios, make buying/selling decisions, how much money to invest, etc.  Time-management and effective decision-making skills are necessary in making these timely decisions.  

Teams are ranked by portfolio value throughout the competition -- teams may be "up" one day, and "down" another.  Students need to cope with the emotions that come with day-to-day changes in portfolio value, thus ranking.

Academic Expectation 2.30:  Students evaluate consumer products and services and make effective consumer decisions.

 Accessing and assessing consumer information, comparing and evaluating products and services, and critiquing advertisements are necessary for making effective consumer decisions. 

 PL-M-3.1.2
Products and services are compared and evaluated based on a range of considerations (e.g., price vs. quality, generic vs. name-brand, comparison shopping vs. impulse shopping, immediate availability vs. advance ordering).

 Students will identify products of companies and compare companies, and evaluate stocks in making strategic investment decisions.

PL-M-3.1.3
Media, technology, and cultural influences (e.g., method and mechanics of presentation, peer pressure, advertisements, desire for status, cultural diversity) have an impact on consumer choices for adolescents.

 As students explore products of companies, they will see how product advertising affects buying, and be able to make that correlation to stock prices going up or down. They will also see how the Internet has affected stock trading.

PL-M-3.1.4
There are positive and negative aspects of advertising strategies (e.g., providing accurate or misleading information, gimmicks).

 Students will learn that the Internet is full of misleading information, scams, and gimmicks to get investors to invest in "hot stocks".  Many students fall for these gimmicks in the Stock Market Game -- only to lose out.  This is a "real-world way  to learn about these scams, before they become investors and lose their own real money!

 As consumers, people must learn to determine their personal needs and manage their resources. 

 PL-M-3.2.1
There are financial management practices (e.g., budgeting, saving) for achieving short- and long-term goals.

Students will learn the value of budgeting, saving, and investing as ways to successfully manage their financial future.  They will learn the difference between short-term investing and long-term investing and the value of setting long-term goals for investing for their financial goals.