Comal ISD middle, elementary students win stock market game

The game is taught by teachers, giving students an early education around financing

A team of sixth-grade students from Mountain Valley Middle School won the Spring 2023 Stock Market Game. Pictured from left are Alexandra Castillo, Denise Leon, Alicia Lopez, Cinthia Luna and Ariana Manzueta. (Comal ISD)

COMAL COUNTY, Texas – Comal ISD students flexed their finance and stock market skills earlier this spring at the 2023 Stock Market Game.

Students from Mountain Valley Middle School (MVMS) and Johnson Ranch Elementary School (JRES) competed against other teams from central Texas.

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The Stock Market Game provides students with the opportunity to learn the value of long-term investing through an online educational program offered to teachers in Central Texas.

Students play individually or in teams of up to five and use a simulation with an imaginary investment of $100,000 to trade stocks, bonds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.

The students taking first place in the middle school category was a team comprised of sixth-grade students in Darla Blaksley’s class at MVMS. They are: Alexandra Castillo, Denise Leon, Alicia Lopez, Cinthia Luna and Ariana Manzueta.

“Students examine the economy, wealth and poverty and what factors are responsible for our individual status, which strikes up great conversations for discussion, and they can come up with solutions for their own specific economic situations,” Blaksley, who has been teaching the Stock Market Game for three years, said.

In the elementary division, fourth-grade students at JRES took both top prizes, with one of its teams taking first place and another team taking second place with the guidance of teacher Michelle Wibracht.

Wibracht, who has taught the Stock Market Game for four years, agrees that the game challenges students to research, analyze, infer and make decisions based on real data and in real time.

“Students are able to embrace choice and the results that come with that choice as well as develop their collaboration skills by working with a team and conversing on different stocks intelligently,” Wibracht said.

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About the Author
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Mason Hickok is a digital journalist at KSAT. He graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a communication degree and a minor in film studies. He also spent two years working at The Paisano, the independent student newspaper at UTSA. Outside of the newsroom, he enjoys the outdoors, reading and watching movies.

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