Travis R. Martin, CPA » Economics

Personal Finance Lesson: Investing in Stocks

travisrmartin — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:34:49 +0000

Learning about stocks is an integral part of any Personal Finance or Economics class. And, regardless of what has

Despite the market's recent downturns stocks remain an important part of any financial portfolio

happened in the market the last few days, stocks are still one of the best tools for building long term wealth.

In this post, I thought I would offer a few of the PowerPoint slides I use to lead classroom discussions on stocks, as well as a few of the worksheets I use. I will post a couple of activities later on.

Since my Personal Finance classes do not have a textbook, and I’m not teaching Econ at the moment, these slides do not correspond to any particular text. I will place them below in the order that I cover them in class. Feel free to adapt them to your own needs!

PowerPoint Discussions over Stocks

PowerPoint Notes: Investing Expectations (Provides students with an overview of what to expect from stock market)
PowerPoint Notes: Introduction to Stocks
PowerPoint Notes: Financial Statements (Basic introduction of Financial Statements for students who haven’t had Accounting)
PowerPoint Notes: Characteristics of High Quality Companies (Students learn traits of high quality companies)
PowerPoint Notes: Other Investments (Introduces Bonds, Mutual Funds, and “other” investments)

Stock Worksheets

Worksheet: Reading Stock Quotes (Excel Format)
Worksheet: Company Financial Statements (Excel Format)
Worksheet: Company Quality (Word Format)

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Economics Lesson Plan: Lego Assembly Line Activity

travisrmartin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:32:01 +0000

Lego Man

Lesson Background

Unless you are teaching an AP Economics class, you probably aren’t going to get a lot of students to read Adam Smith.

Thankfully, there are ways that you can introduce some of the important concepts from Classical Economics without going right to the source.

One example is the division of labor. Although it seems like common sense now, Adam Smith was the first to introduce this concept on a wide scale. In his book Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, Smith describes the efficiencies that can be gained in producing pins (not the ink kind, but the pointy kind) by breaking up the labor into specific stages.

When I cover this topic, I like to have the students demonstrate the difference firsthand by assembling Lego people.

The premise is simple: divide the classroom up into two groups, teams and individuals. The teams work together to make Lego figures (I use simple Lego people) as quickly as possible, while the individuals make them on their own. Ideally, the process should take 5-7 steps. After a given time period, work is stopped and the groups count up their output.

Typically, the groups are able to produce much more than the individuals. Once the benefits of the Division of Labor are apparent, the class engages in a discussion of productivity, focusing on things that could be done to make the workers more productive (use of technology, training, etc.).

In addition to building the Lego people, students can read an excerpt of Smith’s work regarding the Division of Labor here. Instructors may also wish to incorporate the Department of Labor’s information on Labor Productivity.

Lesson Resources

Instructions: Lego Assembly Line Activity
Website: Department of Labor – Productivity Statistics

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Study: U.S. Suffering from Immigrant Brain Drain

travisrmartin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:00:09 +0000

It was a good arrangement while it lasted. For the past twenty years aspiring scientists, engineers and managers from around the world migrated to the United States in hopes of building lucrative careers. The immigrants, largely from India and Asia, reaped the benefits that go along with prestigious, high-paying jobs while the U.S. furthered its status as a global leader in technology. Unfortunately, America’s reign as the Land of Opportunity may be coming to an end.

According to a recent study conducted by researchers at Duke and Harvard, highly skilled immigrants are increasingly shunning the United States to accept positions in their native countries – a phenomenon that suggests the U.S. may be further slipping from its perch as a global economic leader.

While the findings contained in “America’s Loss Is The World’s Gain,” may delight the vocal “foreigners are stealing our jobs” crowd, the economic reality is that immigrant-founded companies like Google, eBay and Intel employed over 450,000 workers in 2006.

Thanks to the immigrant brain drain, the next tech giant may be setting up shop in Delhi, not Silicon Valley.

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2009 Lilly Foundation Teacher Creativity Fellowship

travisrmartin — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:16:55 +0000

If you were a kid growing up in New York City during the 1950’s, and you were a baseball fan, you did not have to look too far for a baseball idol. Between Willie (Mays), Mickey (Mantle) and The Duke (Snider) you had it made.

As a baseball fan growing up in rural Southern Indiana during the early 1990’s, the story for me was somewhat different. Cincinnati, the closest major league city to my hometown, was nearly three hours away. And for an eleven year-old boy living in the boondocks, three hours away was about as close as the moon.

So, my first experiences watching professional baseball came courtesy of the Triple A Louisville Redbirds. Guys like Bernard Gilkey and Ray Lankford were my Willie and Mickey. Old Cardinal Stadium, with its faded green Astroturf and perpetually empty seats, was my Yankee Stadium.

Old Cardinal Stadium (www.minorleagueballparks.com)

From 1989 to 1996 I attended as many Redbird games as I could, making the hour long trek to Louisville with whoever would take me. I consumed my weight in ice cream served up in miniature plastic Redbirds helmets. I cheered as the public address announcer introduced guys like “Geronimo Peeeeeennnna!” and “Bieeeeeen Fig-uer-ooooooaaaaaaaa!”

The details of those games – the double plays, the home runs, the winners and losers – have long since faded from my memory.

What hasn’t faded is my fascination with Minor League Baseball. This summer, thanks to a Teacher Creativity Fellowship Grant from the Lilly Foundation of Indianapolis, I have the opportunity to experience Minor League Baseball from a new perspective with my project “Minor Leagues, Major Opportunities.” Minor Leagues, Major Opportunities will take me on a 5,000 mile journey through places like Cedar Rapids, IA and Altoona, PA as I explore the business side of Minor League Baseball.

I’m inviting you to join me. 24 games. 20 stadiums. 8 leagues. I will be documenting it all on this blog beginning in June 2009. Hopefully, I will be able to convey what makes Minor League Baseball such a special game and how important the sport is to small cities across the country.

In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about the Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship, please visit their website at www.teachercreativity.org.

For a complete description of my project, and a tentative schedule, visit the “Current Projects” portion of my website. To receive updates automatically via e-mail, sign up for the blog feed by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by. See you at the yard.

Travis

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