Resources for Teaching Economics

Resources for teaching economics to students is not something we hear a lot about, and yet knowledge in this area is vital for one’s entire life. Strategies for teaching economics are available for all ages. As a teacher, parent, or student, here are some you might want to investigate.

There’s an article in The Duke TIP website has an article titled Corner the Market that reviews two board games for parents who are interested in teaching their children the complexities of the stock market: Bull Market, by the Great Canadian Game Company Inc. for ages 8 to adult, and Stock Market Tycoon, by Vida Games LLC for ages 12 to adult.

There are lots of links to websites about money and stocks and bonds for students of all ages at Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page.

The Council on Economic Education offers much information for those who teach grades K–12. There are both free materials and those that can be purchased.

The College Board offers Advanced Placement (AP) courses in microeconomics and macroeconomics. These courses may or may not be available at your local high school, but you can find detailed information on each course on this site. Very bright, highly motivated students can also take AP classes online through institutions such as Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development (click on GIFTED LEARNINGLINKS).

The National Economics Challenge is a competition has two different divisions: one for high school students taking Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, honors, college level, or two-semester classes; the other for students enrolled in all other general or one-semester economics classes.

It is possible for a student to have dual enrollment in high school and college, remaining with his age peers at his home school while taking one or more classes at a local college. You can read about an unusual partnership(pdf file) that was created between an Illinois high school and university to provide duel enrollment courses in economics that actually took place on the high school campus. Through the school partnership, administrators and teachers recognized that the high school audiences present special challenges for methods used most frequently on the college campus. Through this partnership, economics courses were taught by a tenure-track university faculty member and limited to honors students. Details are provided about the modifications made, especially in regards to disciplinary actions, grading policies, and scheduling.