Three students take first in state at stock market venture

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Oltman Junior High School ninth graders, Brandon Heyman, Nick Jones and Ethan Williams were honored at an awards ceremony in mid January at the Carlson School of Management in Minneapolis for winning the statewide Stock Market Game Competition, run by BestPrep Organization.

Each year, nearly 13,000 Minnesota students representing more than 200 schools join approximately 830,000 students nationwide for the competition. The Oltman team beat all other Minnesota teams in the junior high/middle school division — 70 teams from across the state.

The three, working as a team, were told to invest $100,000 during their Exploring Business class. In three months that initial pot of money grew to almost $122,000.

Using a stock market Web site, students were able to research companies, buy and sell stocks, compete with each other and with other schools across the state and country. The students discover the risks and rewards involved in decision-making, the sources and uses of capital, and other economic concepts while learning basic skills like reading comprehension, math, research, teamwork and computer proficiency.

Which stocks did they choose? The students said their winning companies included Google, Microsoft and Apple, because those are companies that “people use all the time, and are well known.”

Tags: education, stock, market, game, competition, oltman, jr, high