Investing & Stock Market Unit |
Get the full classroom-ready unit
Everything on this site is the free companion to the complete printable and digital unit for middle & high school.
This is the free companion site for the Investing & Stock Market Unit, a hands-on investing and stock market unit for middle and high school students. Each section below pairs a short video with the matching activity in the packet, plus two interactive tools built for the classroom: a compound interest calculator and a stock market simulator.
Work through the sections in order, or jump to the one you need. Everything here is free to use with your students.
Saving keeps money safe and easy to reach; investing puts it to work to grow over time. Watch the video, then complete the Saving vs. Investing activity in your packet.
A short, beginner-friendly look at how saving and investing each fit into a money plan.
Compound interest earns money on your money, then earns money on that too. Watch the video, then use the calculator to complete the Simple vs. Compound Interest activity.
What interest is, how compounding works, and why starting early matters more than how much you save.
Not all investments carry the same risk or reward. This video compares savings accounts, savings bonds, CDs, bond funds, and stock index funds so you can see how safety and returns trade off. Watch it, then complete the Types of Investments activity in your packet.
How safety and returns trade off, from savings accounts to stocks.
Spreading your money across different investments lowers your risk. Watch the video, then complete the Diversification activity in your packet.
Why one bad investment should not be able to sink everything.
Why do people invest instead of leaving money in the bank? Watch the video, then complete the Why Invest? activity in your packet.
Why the market is not really a casino, and how diversification and long-term investing make the difference.
Learn to read a real stock quote: price, after-hours trading, ranges, volume, market cap, beta, P/E, and dividends. Watch the video, then use what you learned to read the Sunrise Coffee Co. quote page in the Reading a Stock Quote activity.
A full walk-through of a real quote page: market hours and after-hours prices, charts and time ranges, volume, market cap, beta, P/E, dividends and yield.
Watch until about the 12:50 mark. The final 90 seconds advertise the creator's paid class and are not part of the activity. Optional short recap: "How to Read a Stock Quote (Yahoo Finance)" (youtube.com/watch?v=aKwiKE2feR8) covers the basics in a few minutes.
Walk through the same five steps as the How to Buy a Share handout — open the account, add money, find SUN, place the order, and see your portfolio. Everything here is pretend.
Research a real company and decide whether it is a good long-term investment. Watch the video, use the research tools, then complete the Research a Company activity.
Technical vs. fundamental analysis, EPS, P/E, and what makes a company a good buy.
You have $10,000 to invest. Spread it across at least four companies or funds, then run one year to see how your portfolio performs. Record your choices and results in the Stock Market Simulator activity.
| Company / Fund (fictional) | Price | Invest ($) | Shares | After 1 year |
|---|
This simulator is intentionally simple. The companies and prices are made up, and each one-year result is random, weighted by the investment's risk level. Run the same portfolio several times to see how results change from year to year. It is for learning only and is not real investment advice.
Products |
Resources |
|