We got to spend the day at the zoo to celebrate Timmy’s math class team winning a Stock Market Contest in his school district.
Last fall, Timmy’s gifted math class took part in a Colorado program called the “Stock Market Experience”. Many of states do this, and I remember a similar program while I was in high school, although I wasn’t part of it. Students are given a notional $100,000 bank account and are allowed to make investment choices in the stock market. At the end of the period, the winners are the teams/individuals who earn the most money.
Students in grades 3-12 can take part here in Colorado, and for the Fall semester Timmy’s team of four won for their grade level in the Pikes Peak Region, which is Colorado Springs and the surrounding areas. It’s one of 5 regions in the state: besides Pikes Peak, there’s Denver Metro, Northwest, Northeast, and South/Southwest. I don’t know the precise borders of these regions.
Timmy is always good about coming home from school to tell stories about his day. During the competition he would talk about the research his team was doing, and I remember him discussing that one of his teammates had recommended an investment in SanDisk, the company that makes those little memory cards that go into GoPro cameras, cell phones, and tablets. Something happened with SanDisk that caused their stock to perform very well during the time period of their contest. I’m not sure what, but if you look at a graph that includes October and November 2014, you can see it. The shares of SanDisk went from 82 around Columbus Day to about 105 around Thanksgiving. Wow! I don’t thin SanDisk was their only investment, but they must have had enough of it to make a pretty penny!
The team was invited to spend the day at the Denver Zoo last week and then be recognized in an awards ceremony and reception at the event center at the zoo. Well over 200 people were at the awards ceremony, with winners coming in from all over the state, from as far away as Durango (that’s a 6 hour drive)! Timmy was excited to miss a day of school for it.
The weather was quite poor on the day of the awards ceremony, so Timmy and I took a brief look around the zoo beforehand, attended the awards ceremony, then tried to see a little more. All of this was in between thunderstorms…
We’re very proud of our stock-savvy-son! But this contest doesn’t change the fact that he still wants to be a scientist when he grows up. 🙂
I made Timmy dress up somewhat. However, he was one of a very small number who actually did. Many wore their school sweatshirts and t-shirts (we didn’t think of that), and many others just wore shorts and t-shirts. It wasn’t even that warm!
Timmy’s always been my fearless son when it comes to animals. He’ll check out anything, including bugs and worms. He had no problem walking right up to the peacocks that were strutting around. It’s breeding season, I think, since the peacocks were cawing throughout the zoo. It was quite loud.
There is a bird house with numerous open habitats for us to visit. Timmy kept asking me to photograph birds. So I have several dozen shots like this.
This was with my telephoto lens, through a tree branch. Not bad….
It took a lot of willpower for Timmy to not chase the birds around. Sigh….
After visiting some of the animals, we then attended the awards ceremony. It was very crowded and there wasn’t enough seating for everyone.
Timmy is standing up on the far right accepting his certificate. I couldn’t get far up enough to get a good picture. The room was so crowded!
Here’s the team. They’re all very sweet kids and their families are very nice. One of them is moving this summer and Timmy’s going to miss him very much.
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