Do you have an extra $100,000 lying around to play the stock market?

OK, most of us don't, but if you wanted to pretend to make the investment, could you make money doing so?

Some Bayfield students have profited in the stock market, at least on paper. They are learning the ins and outs of investing in Stock Market Experience, a program sponsored by the Colorado Council for Economic Education.

The class is taught by Mary Lynne Herr as part of the gifted and talented program at Bayfield Elementary School.

One of her students, Kaeli Marx, did well enough this semester to take third among all students in the southern region of Colorado, out of about 6,000 elementary students in the state.

Marx and Herr attended an awards ceremony for Stock Market Experience on May 9 at the Denver Zoo.

Marx said the experience taught her which stocks were good buys, which weren't so good, and the importance of timing in the market. Overall, out of her $100,000 imaginary investment starting in January, Marx earned $2,120 by April 15.

Not bad for a fifth grader! Marx said a couple of her top performers were Lowe's, Sandisk and Amerigas.

Herr said the project taught students how to analyze stocks for their price-per-earning ratios, instead of just picking something that interested them because of a cool product. They also learned about credit and saving.

The students worked on the project for only 30 minutes for four days a week, so they also learned how to analyze data quickly and track their stocks' performance.