RIVERTON — As the stock market plummeted the day after the election, teens in Gayle Whitefield's financial literacy class at Riverton High School took it hard.

"We're down," sighed 16-year-old Sydney Miles, a junior, checking her team's stocks on a laptop computer screen Thursday morning.

The group lost about $7,000 of its $200,000 invested funds.

"If we want to win the game, we have to take some risks," said Quinn Thurman, 17, a senior.

Luckily it's not real money students are losing in their financial literacy class. They are simply learning valuable lessons and getting a dose of adult reality — learning everything from stocks to net worth to interest rates.

Classroom games and activities motivate the teens. Last year, three of Whitefield's students were awarded a trip to Washington, D.C., for winning a national stock market game called the Capitol Hill Challenge.

"It makes it fun and real," Whitefield said. "They have to make some wise decisions."

Utah is one of only three states, along with Missouri and Tennessee, to require at least one semester of financial literacy for graduation, according to data gathered by Citi, a global financial services company.

Seventeen states require some type of financial literacy education incorporated into the curriculum in grades kindergarten through 12. The other states have no requirement but financial literacy could be taught, according to Citi data.

Utah's financial literacy course addresses financial planning, along with attitudes and behaviors about money, income and career planning, money management, including budgeting and credit, and saving, investing and retirement.

"For kids, the future is lunch or the next social event," said Julie Felshaw, USOE financial/economic specialist.

But the students are making strides.

"I've learned how to save and stuff," said junior Eric White, 17. He has stashed away several hundred dollars from his part-time job at Intermountain Farmers Association in Riverton. He plans to put it toward a choir tour and a future LDS Church mission.

Making finances fun is a challenge for educators.

Today, financial literacy teachers across Utah will gather in Midway for workshops where they will collect ideas and learn techniques to bring back to their classrooms.

Some topics include saving money for college, identity theft, scams and credit cards. Presenters plan to show games and children's books that teach about money.

The conference is sponsored by Utah Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the personal financial literacy of students.

Utah students graduating last spring were the first to go through the new requirement for the financial literacy course as mandated by the State Board of Education.

The 2008 Legislature passed a law encouraging financial education, especially at lower grades.

"We want to plant some seeds along the way. It's better than waiting until the kids are 16 and saying, 'Let's talk about money,"' Felshaw said.

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