Monday, March 22, 2010

Economics Illustrated

Summary: High Tech High. Economics Project







This textbook was produced by Mr. Dan Wise's 10th grade economics class at High Tech High in San Diego, California. This textbook is very good. In Mr. Wise's class, learning outcomes are project based. In his class of approximately 30 students, every student was engaged in active participation.

Teaching AP Economics requires a rigorous approach to content. Many times students are required to sit and get or listen to a chalk talk. My students know the material for the test, but forget as soon as they can after the test. The projects I saw around the room and in this book are made to stick. I asked a young author about her article on the wall and she could recall it clearly. This is learning--a dependable change in student behavior.

Mr. Jason Welker used Wikis to build his online book. Technology has made it easy for anyone to enter the publishing market pushing the marginal cost to zero. After seeing both Messrs
Wise and Welker's work, I know I have to have more project-based learning in my class. Recently, I made Excel spreadsheet problems and TI-83 problems in which the software handled the graphing. I am convinced that writing is the secret to long-lasting learning.

Please share any projects you have used in class to teach economics.
About the Author: Mike Fladlien is an AP Economics teacher from Muscatine High School in Muscatine, IA. He is an EconEdLink.org author, and also publishes the Mikeroeconomics. He was a 2008 ISEA teacher of the year finalist and a Toyota teacher of the month.

1 comments:

Tim Loreman said...

Id be interested in your excel problems if you would be interested in sharing.
I am a huge fan of PBL (and use it extensively in my regular econ) but have had some issues figuring out ways to implement in my AP Micro class.

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