Dallas ISD's Third Grade Entrepreneurs Raking In The Cash
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Successful businesses are rarely games of chance — unless of course, it's the third-grade creation "Turkey Math."
Students in the Gifted & Talented program at Gill Elementary took a fun classroom exercise in mental math, and turned it into a successful business - run by third-graders.
"It's kind of fun," said Dylan Oropeza, an 8-year-old student. "And you can also learn at the same time."
Oropeza said the effort took a lot of teamwork, and he and his classmates learned a lot about what it takes to build a business.
"We would have to get the investors first to start with the money," said classmate Natalie Isabella Rodriguez. "And then we have to pay the investors back and we also said we would pay them 5% more of the interest."
Backed with a kid-created business plan, the students sold stock in their classroom business to raise capital, and solicited bids for the services needed to put the games together.
The mini-moguls walked away with a profit margin at 300 percent, which would make many adults green with envy.
"When they actually started getting money, people were handing them money, it was really, really exciting," said Gill Elementary's Gifted & Talented coordinator Vell Nottingham. "It was absolutely real-life from beginning to end. And the math coaches were thrilled to see the depth of learning, because it's not just a math problem anymore, it's real life application."
And, of course, it's an all-around win when you make your product irresistible.
"You want to play the game more, to win the game more and more," said Natalie. "It makes you want to learn mental math more."
So far, the students have raised about $250 for the school's PTA.
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