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Alpha Stage
A Fall
February 28, 2007





The Washington Post is running an article entitled, "Dow Drops to
Close More Than 416 Points Down." The subtitle states, "Officials
Say Precipitous Fall was Caused by a Technical Problem."


The article reports, "The sell- off began overseas, when two
exchanges in Shanghai that track the Chinese stock markets both fell
nearly 9 percent -- that largest drop in a decade. The major Asian
exchanges ended lower, and European markets followed suit, with
indices such as London's FTSE 100 shedding more than 2 percent of
their value."

Apparently the drop in the Shanghai market was caused by investor
fear that the Chinese government was preparing to crack down on the
stock market which has doubled in value in the last twelve months.

Read a Similar Article!!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children

  • Ask your students if they have ever done something because
    they saw somebody else do it? What did they do? Why did they
    copy the other person's actions?
  • Consider playing "Follow the Leader" in your class. Ask
    students if it's fun to play this game. Why/why not?

  • Ask your students what kinds of things money can be used for.
    Encourage them to be creative and list a few ideas.
  • Consider asking students to draw a picture of one way
    in which money can be used.

  • How do your students think they would feel if one day
    somebody gave them $100 and on the next day they lost half of
    this money. Why would they feel this way?
  • Students could work in groups of two or three to
    develop skits explaining how they would feel.

  • Have your students ever borrowed something that belonged to
    somebody else? What did they borrow? Do they think it would
    have been OK to lend this thing out to somebody else?
    Why/why not?
  • Consider inviting students to pretend that they are judges
    and it is their job to answer this question. Students could
    write simple sentences to answer the question.

Discussion-Starters for Older Students

  • Vocabulary terms to discuss: Equities; Skittishness; Glitch; and,
    Speculators.

  • What does it mean for a company to have value? When stock
    prices fall what happens to the value of the company?
  • Students could demonstrate the answers to these
    questions in graphic format. Simply ask them to develop
    a series of pictures to answer the question.br>

  • Ask your students to respond to the following statement, in
    light of the recent stock market activity: "Everything that goes
    up must come down." Do your students think that this
    statement is necessarily correct? Why/why not?
  • Ask students to answer this question in quick- writes.

  • Ask your students what the fall in stock prices indicates about
    the economic relationship between China and the United States.
    Do your students think that it is important to understand the
    Chinese culture and civilization? Why/why not?
  • These questions could promote an interesting class
    discussion.
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