Engineering Mindz Win Maryland Southeast Region Stock Market Game

A group of elementary school students from Bowie, College Park and Lanham in the Engineering Mindz stock market club recently won first place in the Maryland Southeast Region Stock Market Game, an annual competition that teaches kids how to invest in publicly traded companies.

The eight­-member stock market team at Greenbelt­-based Engineering Mindz Learning & Enrichment Center is one of several after­-school clubs offered at the newly opened center.

As part of the contest, students received a virtual $100,000 to purchase company shares. Each week, 90 teams from around the state were ranked based on their weekly stock gains.

“They were motivated to make thoughtful, well researched stock buys to move up in the school rankings,” said Smith, a former teacher trainer and school consultant who led a previous top ­finishing team in the Stock Market Game.

From October to early­ December, the stock market team met for weekly “board meetings” at Engineering Mindz to research companies and to vote on stock picks.

Among their stock picks were Disney, technology giants Apple and Google, videogame maker Activision, defense firm Northrop Grumman, PayPal, Starbucks, major retailers, pharmacies and U.S. automakers.

The stock team included students from various public, private and home schools in Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties.

The team of fourth-­ and fifth­-graders quickly became sold on investing, so much so that some asked their parents to buy them stock for Christmas.

“Not many adults would trust a group of fifth­-graders to invest their money, but these kids proved that even young students can make educated stock picks based on simple investing strategies,” said Smith.