tracking investments as a stats assignment

One semester, I tried tracking a classroom "investment portfolio" as a means of keeping students interested in statistics.

• relates to data visualizations
• ideas of risk using standard deviation
• compared their own portfolio's performance to benchmark indexes such as NASDAQ, SP500, and Dow Jones
• introduces students to investments 

After looking around a bit, I decided to create an account in SigFig for each class.

My Assessment of the Assignment:
Overall, the assignment was interesting for most students.

• works best if we check in regularly to see how the class portfolio is performing compared to indices-- students got a kick out of seeing their portfolio out-perform the indices
• assign a reading of standard deviation as a measure of risk
• assign a reading about alpha and beta