AEA-CEE Poster Session
Poster Session
Friday, Jan. 7, 2022 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM (EST)
Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM (EST)
Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM (EST)
- Chair: Rita A. Balaban, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Building a Principles of Microeconomics for All: Using Backwards Design to Create Online, Hybrid and Face-to-Face Versions of a Principles Course with Active Student Engagement
Building a Learning Community Using a Multimedia Group Project
Applied Economic Analysis and Public Policy
Learning About Local Community through Undergraduate Research
Using the Social Science Reproduction Platform to Teach Reproducibility
Abstract
The Social Science Reproduction Platform (SSRP) is a resource for systematically conducting and recording reproductions of published social science research. The SSRP streamlines the entire process of conducting reproductions, from selecting papers to identifying their claims, assessing and improving their reproducibility, and conducting robustness checks.The SSRP can be easily incorporated as a module in applied social science courses at graduate and undergraduate levels, allowing students to learn about fundamental concepts, research methods, and tools for reproducible research. Go to SocialScienceReproduction.org to sign up for free and find detailed guidance for students and instructors. Contact acre@berkeley.edu with any questions.
Using Brainstorming Techniques to Teach Economic Forecasting
A Road Map for Online Course Development in Teaching Principles of Economics at a Technical University
Abstract
Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic online courses became a norm in higher education. Faculty has been exploring new pedagogical approaches to learning to deal with challenges such as encouraging students’ creative thinking and active class participation. This could be especially challenging for faculty that teaches principles of economics to engineering and technology related students where economics is often viewed as a side or less relevant course relative to core technology classes. Although the students may have a preference towards the mathematical orientation of the content, they struggle to understand the application of economic principles in their professional fields and day-to-day activities. This paper presents innovative teaching methods that emphasize the importance of economic principles in students’ everyday lives. The paper details the online course design process by blending current events in the economy into engaging assignments to teach principles of economics at a technical university. It illustrates the methodology and pedagogical approaches with the aim to (1) enhance the quality and practicality of learning economics for engineering and technology related students (2) promote creative thinking, engagement, motivation, and participation in online asynchronous classes (3) increase students’ performance, independent and peer-to-peer learning in an online environment.Teaching Strategy: An original feature of online discussions is to establish the discussion leader role. Randomly chosen students are selected to serve as discussion leaders for each discussion. They are also graded based on their performance. Their role is to deepen the discussion by asking additional questions to the rest of the class and provide further comments and resources for concepts applications. I found this strategy engages students more into the discussion and promotes peer-to-peer learning. Each discussion assignment is in the form of an essay. Students should answer a set of questions related to economic concepts by analyzing news articles and video-clips and comment on their classmates’ posts. They should also answer to discussion leaders’ questions and post additional questions for the discussion leaders. Students are incentivized to share personal experiences and applications of the concept in their technical fields. They are expected to brainstorm new or innovative solutions to the problem discussed and seek classmates’ opinions regarding proposed solutions. This is an effective eye-opening strategy because it brings together different perspectives that challenge the student’s previous beliefs. Discussion assignments are assigned regularly throughout the semester along with hands-on problem-solving exercises which are also based on current events from the news. These assignments are created to equip students with applicable economic knowledge and skills and prepare them to write a “Policy brief” paper which is submitted as a final assignment. Each discussion, exercises and policy brief assignment require students to weight pros and cons of solutions to the problems. Through this teaching strategy students learn about complexity of decision-making process, they have time to self-reflect, express their own opinion, create arguments, develop critical thinking, and connect with the rest of the class in an online asynchronous environment.
Community Partner Involvement in the Assessment of Student Learning: A Case Study in Economics
Voices on the Economy (VOTE)
Understanding the Role and Effectiveness of Alumni Connections on Experiential Learning
Abstract
What should educators do to enhance experiential learning in teaching? This paper conducts a web-based survey via Qualtrics to document teaching excellence in experiential learning by integrating alumni connections into a classroom of the College Federal Reserve Challenge. We find that developing alumni connections in a classroom environment via a variety of planned activities such virtual/in-person in-class talks, road trips, resource sharing, and mock presentations can effectively motivate students in learning and collaborating. Students therefore achieve higher-order thinking skills (e.g., application, analysis, and evaluation) and professional communication skills. We also find that alumni involvement in the course successfully helps students see the links between economic theory and specific professions in the real world. Importantly, these experiences have life-long impacts (i.e., they ‘stick’) as students/alumni move through their careers and they in turn give back to future generations of Fed Challenge students. We conclude that promoting and maintaining relationships between University faculty and alumni is crucial as is cultivating the link between current and past Fed Challenge students.Using ESPN Fantasy Baseball Simulation to Teach Economic Concepts
Abstract
A goal of undergraduate economics programs is teaching data literacy. This article describes a classroom activity using ESPN Fantasy Baseball Sport in which students draft players and a sporting season is simulated. It explores how the activity of participating in a baseball league can be used as a motivator to enhance the learning of the economic concepts of marginal product and competitive balance, and to enhance data literacy skills of locating relevant data and working with data using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. To prepare for the baseball draft, students complete an exercise using the concept of marginal product to evaluate players and collect data to compare the predicted win contribution of players. The ESPN program is used to draft players and organize teams into leagues, and the Out of the Park Baseball 20 program is used to simulate a season. The results are collected in a data file, and students compute measures of competitive balance for each league. Finally, using the same data along with the addition of the method of player valuation used in drafting, students use regression analysis to compare player valuation methods and team performances. The poster illustrates how instructors can use the simulation feature of ESPN Fantasy Baseball to develop exercises appropriate for upper-level courses in Economics.Writing about Current Events in the Economics Classroom
Introduction to the National Accounts: Gross Domestic Product and Its Components
Getting Your Students to Be Dynamic: Lesson and Web App about Market Dynamics in the Long-Run
Strategies of Creating Inclusive Teaching Environments in Online Courses in the Economics and Finance Curriculum
Teaching Market Structures with a Competitive Gum Market
Abstract
Economics classrooms are typically teacher-centered, textbook-driven, and dominated by lecture-based and chalk-and-talk methodology (Watts & Schaur, 2011; Watts & Becker, 2008; Becker & Watts, 1996). A 2012 survey found college economics faculty “spending 70 percent of class time lecturing, 20 percent leading class discussion, and 10 percent using other learning activities such as experiments, group activities, peer instruction, clickers, and so on” (Goffe & Kauper, 2014, p. 361). While lecture has been shown to be effective for the transfer of knowledge (Antepohl & Herzig, 1999; Nandi et al., 2000), used alone it does not usually lead to durable student learning (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).Economic education research suggests active teaching methods are better suited to teach economic content, and students exposed to them are more likely to internalize the content and “think like an economist” (Siegfried et al., 1991, p. 199) long after they leave the classroom. Active learning increases student motivation, retention, and depth of understanding (Christoffersen, 2002).
In this lesson, students participate in an activity that demonstrates a key economic idea: The level of competition in an industry is a major determinant of product prices. Students are placed in groups that replicate four competitive conditions—perfect competition, monopoly, competitive oligopoly, and collusive oligopoly. Students act as firms in each industry competing to sell their product to the teacher (acting as a consumer). Through the market activity, students learn that when many firms are competing in an industry, prices begin to reflect the cost of production, whereas a single seller can command a high price. They also learn how collusion can result in groups of sellers behaving as monopolists.
This activity is intended for an introductory or principles-level college economics course. The activity fits the curriculum well because it teaches a key part of the micro content in a way the supplements but does no replaced the content in a typical textbook.
Teaching Economics with Moneyball
JEL Classifications
- A2 - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics