The 2009 Nevada Legislature approved Senate Bill 317 (SB 317) requiring that Nevada's public high schools, including charter schools, provide instruction in financial literacy. In an effort to assist school districts with implementation of instruction in financial literacy, the Nevada Department of Education assembled a task force (Financial…

Many instructors in subjects such as economics are frequently concerned with how to teach technical material to undergraduate students with limited mathematical backgrounds. One method that has proven successful for the authors is to connect theoretically sophisticated material with actual data. This enables students to see how the theory relates…

Primary-grade students can gain exposure to a wide range of economic concepts in state standards if teachers use reading strategies that embrace children's literature with economic content. This approach allows teachers to teach their students reading strategies and economics simultaneously. Almost all states have content standards in economics,…

History matters. It matters not only because people can learn from the past, but because the present and the future are connected to the past by the continuity of a society's institutions. Today and tomorrow's choices are shaped by the past. And the past can be made intelligible only as a story of institutional evolution. This story focuses on the…

The authors outline an innovative activity that helps teachers make the abstract concepts of scarcity and allocation concrete in the K-12 classroom. Students evaluate the scarcity of chocolate and often determine, incorrectly, that the candy is not scarce because there is enough for each student to have one piece. After students reveal their…

Intended as an aid to college level economics teachers, this article traces the theoretical development of the accelerator principle, as applied to investment theory. It also reviews the many investment theories that have utilized the accelerator principle for empirical testing and summarizes some of their findings. (Author/RM)

The typical method of presenting supply and demand in high school classes often leaves students with an impression that markets are simple and function effortlessly. In reality, the effectiveness of markets depends on the quality of complex institutions such as private property and property-rights enforcement. Students often do not realize that…

Teaching an evening course in economics at an Adult Education Institute can be challenging. But it is very different from teaching economics in a college. Discusses adults' motives for studying economics, what economics should be taught, teaching methods, and ways to facilitate classroom discussion. (RM)

Institutional economics remains a viable alternative approach to economics. It stresses power, technology, and a holistic and evolutionary approach while critiquing the neoclassical approach. General features of institutional economics are examined, and the work of institutionalists in specific areas is discussed. (RM)

Intended to give college economics students insights into the problems of demand management, this game involves students in manipulating government expenditure, with incomes policy and devaluation options, to try to secure the objectives of full employment, low inflation, and an acceptable balance of payments position. (RM)

Most children have heard that money does not grow on trees. But it does on paper--in books! This column features paired book titles and related activities that can be used in the classroom or the library media center to celebrate National Coin Week in April. Time devoted to students while sharing books on money and its uses will be well spent.

The contribution of John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) to current economic thought is reviewed. Keynes' analysis is contrasted with more orthodox theory in terms of allocation efficiency and stabilization efficiency. (Author/RM)

Provides a conceptual framework for teaching price theory and the substitution effects of price changes. Uses the example of student choice of course load to illustrate the usual substitution effect of a price change between goods, and is extended to substitution among differentiated products within a heterogeneous good. (LS)

Outlines the differences between the traditional and modern theoretical models of demand for money. States that the two models are often used interchangeably in textbooks, causing ambiguity. Argues against the use of linear specifications that imply that income velocity can increase without limit and that autonomous components of aggregate demand…

In this article, the author discusses the educational frozen price game she developed to teach the basic economic principle of price allocation. In addition to demonstrating the advantages of price allocation, the game also illustrates such concepts as opportunity costs, cost benefit comparisons, and the trade-off between efficiency and equity.…