To deepen our understanding of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, 8th graders participated in a lively and engaging simulation in Humanities. Students were paired off and given $140 at the start of the game. The “market” (represented by a few students) was open for 2 minutes at a time, where students could buy, trade, and/or sell stock at the current price. When the trading floor closed, student pairs had to determine both their total cash and worth of stocks.

We went through 8 rounds of this process, with the share prices fluctuating each time. Students had to deliberate with their partners about what their next move should be – at each round, historical information was offered around American consumer culture to provide some background knowledge. By the time we reached the 8th round, some share prices had suddenly lost 86% of their 7th round valuation – you can imagine the chaos that ensued! The students loved participating in this simulation, and it served as a great way to introduce Black Tuesday and the subsequent Great Depression.