Dorothy Chapman

Stemmers Run Middle School

Middle school teacher, Ms. Chapman, knows that MCEE’s Stock Market Game (SMG) can teach her students all about money and finance. More importantly, she uses the program to have an additional and long-lasting impact on her students.  MCEE and the Game help reinforce life skills such as: cooperation and collaboration, group dynamics, task management and more.  Ms. Chapman says, “even picking out the name for the Stock Market Game team requires them to work together.”

Ms. Chapman teaches business and computer science at Stemmers Run Middle School, a Title I school in Essex. She guides two sections of students in each grade in the Stock Market Game as part of the curriculum unit on financial literacy.

For 6th graders, Ms. Chapman begins by talking with students about their experiences, such as buying food at a grocery store. She introduces concepts like currency and money, and then helps students understand savings and the value of exchanging goods in a global economy.  With this knowledge, students begin to understand business entities - corporations, franchises, and sole proprietorships.  These are more complex forms of business ownership but Ms. Chapman breaks it down into something they already have knowledge of, and “they are able to understand business trades.”

Ms. Chapman shows the students real stock certificates and “we begin to talk about how the stock market exchanges work and how some stocks are more valuable than others.” Ms. Chapman says, “this process gets students really excited.  They love to trade in the Stock Market Game and find out how well their portfolios are performing.”

That excitement extends beyond financial knowledge. Ms. Chapman uses the Stock Market Game to teach other important lessons. “I don’t want the students to feel like they're limited. I want them to know about markets and commodities so they realize that even if they don’t have anything now, later on they may choose to invest their money”

This is especially important at Stemmers Run, where students are building their English and mathematical skills exponentially.  Students are encouraged to read news headlines and current events about the company they are investing in to determine whether their company will succeed or fail. “We talk about budgeting and savings too,” says Ms. Chapman. “I want them to know that this is a process. The Stock Market Game gives them an authentic way to see how to work in the world of business and finance.  It’s valuable information and used in real life which helps them become wiser in their decision making process.”