The students in my Stock Market Group are amazing. They all chose to take my class on financial investing because they want to learn more about financial literacy and our school does not offer any other financial literacy programs. Although they are dedicated to learning more about financial literacy, sometimes the topic can be a bit dry. However, this year they have become very excited about aerospace exploration companies like SpaceX. This is typical of their generation which NASA has termed the "Mars Generation" because they will likely be the first people to colonize Mars. While competing in the Stock Market Game, the students invested in Alphabet stock (the parent company of Google that owns a 7.5% stake in SpaceX), Aerojet, Boeing, Orbital Science, and other companies in the aerospace industry. This is very different than groups of children I had in the past who invested in more child friendly companies like Disney. My students are enthusiastic about financial investing in space exploration and I want to tap into their enthusiasm to learn more about stocks and investing.
My Project
I would like to co-teach an interdisciplinary unit about the privatization of space exploration and financial investing. This topic is based on the interest of my Stock Market students. Previously when I taught financial literacy, I used pre-made lesson plans and curricula. For example, we used the Next Gen Personal Finance Activity that was promoted by Donors Choose a few months ago. We have also used lessons developed by The Stock Market Game. However, I think that to truly engage my students in the topic of financial literacy, I need to create my own financial literacy unit that combines financial literacy with another highly engaging topic like innovations in the private aerospace industry and how it relates to investing.
I have taught our school's financial literacy program, for the past seven years but I have never taught a class about outer space; I want to combine the two topics to make learning about investment exciting and relevant to The Mars Generation.
By attending the Space Exploration Educators Conference, I will learn more about innovation in the space industry. I will be able to use this new learning to develop a new space themed financial investment unit that is tailored to my students' interests. During the four day conference, I will attend dozens of sessions to learn about innovation in the aerospace industry and learn about the private space sector.
After attending the conference, I will create an entire unit that combines learning about saving and investing with the theme of space. Before the beginning of next semester, I will advertise the new space theme of the financial literacy class on the morning video announcements to get more students in the class. Then we'll learn about financial literacy through hands on activities related to aerospace companies and investing.
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