Money Matters: Build Your Investment Game Plan

What Will You Do?

• Compare investment strategies and discuss how goals affect portfolio choices

• Research companies and industries using stock screeners and financial reports

• Build a simulated stock portfolio with imaginary funds

• Track prices, allocations, portfolio value, and return on investment

• Explore budgeting, credit, and compound interest through calculations and simulations

• Present your portfolio research, results, and investment reasoning to classmates

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Compare investments using company research, financial information, and risk considerations

• Calculate and explain changes in a simulated portfolio’s value and returns

• Present an investment strategy with evidence supporting the choices and assumptions

You’ll leave with your simulated portfolio, tracking work, and presentation, along with financial questions and methods you can keep exploring.

Why Financial Analysis Skills Matter

Financial analysis asks students to connect a decision with its consequences. Reading a company’s results, calculating a return, and comparing risks make it harder to rely on a familiar name or an appealing story alone. Students learn to separate evidence from an assumption and explain what a calculation actually tells them.

Everyday money choices involve similar tradeoffs. A budget connects spending with available funds, while a compound-interest model shows how time changes an outcome. Working with imaginary money gives students room to test ideas and revise their thinking. The value comes from understanding the reasoning behind a choice.

Who Should Attend?

For students who have completed 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th grade.

If you wonder how businesses earn money, why stock prices change, or how people choose investments, this course gives you a way to investigate. You’ll research companies, work through calculations, and explain choices to classmates. Be ready to compare sources, question an initial idea, and keep records as a simulated portfolio changes. The activities use imaginary funds, so students can explore financial decisions without making real investments.

Institute for the Gifted eligibility requirements apply; see the program FAQ. A completed program application is required.

Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 Cornell program.

Cornell’s Ithaca setting gives elementary and middle school students an adventurous first experience of campus life, surrounded by Finger Lakes gorges, waterfalls, and a landscape shaped by research, agriculture, and invention. The setting makes learning feel different from an ordinary school day and gives students plenty to notice and explore.

The program combines active academics with friendships, campus activities, clear routines, and support as students become more comfortable in a new environment. Students can try challenging ideas, share interests with peers, and enjoy the fun of living and learning on a university campus. For families, Cornell offers a structured middle-school experience that balances learning and discovery with community, support, and growing independence.

Company research can answer different questions for different people. An investor might compare profitability and debt before choosing a stock. A business owner might examine the same measures to understand operating decisions. A financial analyst organizes information so someone else can assess a choice and its risks.

Students encounter that work through their simulated portfolios and presentations. Outside the stock market, a household budget or a savings model also depends on clear assumptions, accurate calculations, and a purpose for the money. The course introduces several contexts for financial reasoning without asking students to choose a career or commit real funds.