Oakland math teacher teaches financial literacy with stock market game

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Middle school math teacher Chris Lynch has a unique way of educating his students about financial literacy.

They play a stock market game online so they can learn about money.

Every student gets $100,000 in pretend money. Lynch, who teaches at St. Theresa School in the Upper Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland, said they play the game for about two months, then see how they did.

"He makes the class so fun and everyone feels kind of involved," said seventh grade student Christiane Zuber.

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Seventh grade student Anna Schou said she made $10,000 in fake money off her stocks, including:

"Nvidia, Target and Netflix, things I was familiar with," Schou said. "I'd be interested in doing this in real life too."

Seventh grade student Ava McGahan admits she lost all her money at one point and then rebounded.

"I had a few stocks like Tesla that kind of went wonky all over the place," McGahan said.

"I learned that it's important to spend your money wisely."

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Lynch incorporates real-life examples and teaches his students what can impact the market.

"We talked about different companies and why do you think their price of that stock went up or down, and how it relates to things going on in the world now, from high oil prices to high inflation, etc.," Lynch said.

Lynch should know. He said he worked in finance for about 20 years.

But he found his true passion - teaching.

The Stock Market Game can be found online.

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