If the idea sounds crazy to you, give it another thought. Business reality shows have pulled through in the past, and every bust holds the seeds for the next boom. As venture capital money begins to be spent and the next big idea emerges, an investment craze is likely to take hold again -- as it did with the dotcom boom and the most recent financial market euphoria. That's what will get people to watch.

If Foss wins, she's already made her stock picks for the prize money: Disney (DIS), Hershey (HSY), Six Flags (SIXFQ) and McDonald's (MCD) are on the list. It looks like Foss is betting on a consumer spending surge when the market begins to recover!

Barrett Lewis, a 13-year-old from Abilene, TX, made the cut with his "Easy Stuff Campaign," which would use a variety of media -- including iPhone apps and Facebook ads -- to move simple flashcards that would educate youth on how the markets work. He's betting on a casual style and accessible media to reach his target audience and is demonstrating a multi-channel marketing savvy that is bound to make someone rich someday. His pitch: "Because the ads and other campaign elements are specifically designed for teens, it will make a big impact on their knowledge of the financial world." His stock picks reflect his entry into the Challenge, with Apple (AAPL), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and Google (GOOG) likely to wind up in his portfolio.

Julia Campanella has already shown a firm grasp of image management: make the sponsors happy. If the 13-year-old from Dorset, VA wins with her "Ticker" game, one of her stock picks would be Challenge sponsor K12 Inc. (LRN), along with Apple. Kids would operate a stock simulator and use virtual dollars to shoot for financial glory. By playing, they'd learn the techniques that could make them rich for real someday. Ticker wouldn't just present the facts and concepts, Campanella says, "it also creates fun and engages players in games and activities."

Fabian Fernandez-Han, another Texan (from Conroe), has an iPhone app in mind. "Oink-a-Saurus" would combine a profiler that learns about your interests by analyzing your online browsing and buying behaviors and a scenario generator that shows what your financial situation could have been if the user had invested instead of spent. How often have you thought, "What if I'd saved or invested that money instead?" Oink-a-Saurus would be able to give you the answer. A social networking component would create a community around the application and provide a link to a broker willing to work with teens (do I smell affiliate revenue?).

Fernandez-Han observes, "Many kids spend huge amounts of money on things they don't need when they should be saving/investing for their future, such as college." He believes that Oink-a-Sauras would "allow them to go from buying a favorite thing to learning about the company that makes it, to news/research about the company, to buying/selling that company's shares in a stock market simulator, and ultimately, for real." Apple and Google are on his list as well. But he's looking to the future with Sapphire Energy, which is at the front of the algae power industry.

The youngest finalist is Tyra Smith from Chicago, IL. At eight years old, she's devised "Stock Pocket," an educational investing game -- portable, of course -- that uses electronic flashcards to help kids learn the ins and outs of the financial world. Players can assume different user types such as CEO, shareholder, investor or broker and score points by answering questions correctly. She notes, "Flashcards are a great tool to help people remember things" and that the game will help its users "learn and remember facts about the markets. It's also portable so you can take it on trips." Like Foss, Smith has her eye on the consumer products space and would invest her winnings in Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) and Pepsi (PEP).

The Challenge ran from the beginning of June through the end of September. Voting for the finalists begins on Nov. 12, 2009, and remains open until noon on Nov. 25.