Teaching Arkansas Standards through Games: STAX by NGPF
Arkansas educators are always on the lookout for resources that they can incorporate into their curriculums to meet the needs of their diverse student populations. The current global pandemic is increasing the need for these resources—ones that can be adapted for use in the classroom as well as from home, that are fun and engaging while also guiding students to meet their learning objectives.
Today, you’ll learn about one such resource and how to utilize it in various Arkansas social studies classrooms. You might even enjoy playing it yourself!
Students choose from different investment options to build their wealth over time, while also learning about the importance of having an emergency funds and savings.
Build Your STAX
The investment game Build Your STAX is provided by Next Gen Personal Finance. NGPF is a nonprofit organization that works with teachers to provide high quality personal finance resources they can use to teach saving, investing, and other personal finance standards in their classrooms.
NGPF's STAX teaches students how to save and invest using an engaging activity that asks them to make 20 years of investment decisions in 20 minutes. Students choose from seven different investment options to build their wealth over time, while also learning about the importance of having an emergency fund as random setbacks disrupt them in this simulation.
The game has both single- and multi-player options. Teachers or parents can assign it to their students individually along with questions to think about and answer. Or, an entire class or family can play, turning the game into a competition to see who can invest their money most successfully. This game has also been optimized for playing on mobile devices using a data connection.
The game begins with some basic instructions, letting the player know that their goal is to save money over the course of 20 game-years and that every six game-months they will receive additional “pay” to invest. Players start the game with $4,000 in pocket cash and access to a basic, low-interest savings account. For each new type of account students gain access to, the game presents a mini lesson and explains how students can invest in that account.
Learning Objectives and Standards in This Game
Image from pulled from in-game.
While playing STAX, students will assess the financial market in order to make financial decisions and measure the amount of wealth they could gain over a realistic period of time. Students will explore many concepts from Arkansas’s economics, personal finance, and quantitative literacy standards:
PFM.8.E.2 Critique components of personal money management in order to build short-term and long-term wealth
PF.7.SI.5 Compare the characteristics of saving tools (e.g., liquidity, interest rates, term length) to determine how to best meet a financial goal
PF.7.SI.7 Research different types of investments (annuities, bonds, money market funds, mutual funds, real estate, stocks) and consider the importance of diversification
PF.7.SI.1 Compare the effects of interest rates as applied to saving and borrowing money
PF.7.SI.4 Analyze the relationship between risk and return
Questions to Guide Discussion
How did you choose to invest your pocket cash and investment earnings?
Which investment options did you buy, and why?
Did you avoid any investments altogether? How come?
Which investment options made you the most money?
Did you lose money on any of your investments?
What was your strategy going into the game?
Did your strategy change as you were playing?
What did your final portfolio look like? Do you feel like you diversified your investments?
How does your portfolio compare to the computer’s portfolio or a classmate’s?
If you played the game again, what would you do differently to end up with more money in your final portfolio?
For additional questions to discuss and a guided worksheet for students, check out the interactive worksheet, also developed by NGPF!
Wrapping Up
This game is a great way for students to practice long-term saving and investing. All of the investing lessons included in this game contain key vocabulary from Arkansas’s personal financial management curriculum. Students can use this hands-on game in or out of class to learn about and improve their investing skills. For more information on Next Gen Personal Finance and the variety of resources they provide, visit the website here: https://www.ngpf.org/.
