Teach Economics

Would bringing brain science into your classroom help you teach economics? In this episode, Scott Wolla, economic education officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, explores that question. He’s joined by Bill Goffe, an economics teaching professor at Penn State University, and Andrew Butler, an associate professor of psychology and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Both educators say that applying even a little brain science to economics lessons can help unlock students’ learning potential.

In this episode of Teach Economics, Justin Wolfers, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, talks to Scott Wolla, economic education officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, about how he found economics, why he loves teaching economics, and why it’s important to help students “think like an economist.”

In this third episode, Mary Suiter, former assistant vice president of economic education at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and Mike Raymer, executive director of the Georgia Council for Economic Education, share their journeys and advice on writing lessons that bring economics to life for students in the classroom. They discuss how having a great community of fellow educators can help generate good ideas and make teaching and learning economics more enjoyable.

In the second episode of Sneak-a-nomics, Bonnie Meszaros, associate director of the Center of Economic Education and Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware,  discusses what goes into writing engaging economics and personal finance lessons using children’s literature. Also hear from Erin Boettcher, a fifth grade teacher at Newark Charter School in Newark, Del., who shares how she makes economics and personal finance feel natural for her and her students.

In the first episode of Sneak-a-nomics, Erin Boettcher, a fifth grade teacher at Newark Charter School in Newark, Del., and Bonnie Meszaros, associate director of the Center of Economic Education and Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware, discuss the value of teaching economics and personal finance in the elementary school classroom as well as how you can “sneak” concepts such as saving, decision making, goods and services, productivity, and opportunity costs into the subjects you’re already teaching.