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Econ Update, Fall 1999
A Publication of the Wisconsin Council on
Economic Education, for educators, contributors, & friends of economic
education
Table of Contents
Excellence in Teaching Economics for Secondary
Teachers
Wisconsin Economics Competition For Students a Big
Success
Milwaukee Area Teachers Prepare for Economics License
A Picture is Worth
A Thousand Words
Lutheran Teachers in Appleton Take Summer Class in
Economics
Oshkosh School District Teachers Taking
Economics Standards Workshop
MPS Regional
Retains State Title
Welcome To New Contributors
Centers
Excellence in Teaching Economics for Secondary
Teachers Back
Teachers from Eau Claire, Milwaukee and Waunakee
were honored as winners of the Robert W. Baird & Co.
1999 Excellence in Teaching Economics Secondary Teachers Awards Program. The annual awards recognize the innovative teaching practices
of Wisconsin secondary teachers who make economics a vital part of their
curriculum.
Ken
Ripp, Eau Claire Memorial High School,
received 1st place honors for a project called “Pictures…,
Action…, Economics…”, which utilized simulations, demonstrations and
posters in conjunction with the writings of Adam Smith.
The project was designed to better engage students in their learning of
economic concepts and in developing an economic way of thinking.
Frederick
Yatchak, an economics instructor at
Milwaukee Area Technical College Adult High School, received 2nd
place honors for his project “High School Economics On-Line,” an internet
class. This class is for 10th,
11th and 12th grade students who thrive on technology in a
non-traditional learning environment. The
course covers economic concepts such as entrepreneurship, scarcity, economic
systems, supply and demand, as well as instruction in practical economics like
budgeting and the responsible use of credit.
John
Laubmeier, an economics teacher at Waunakee
Community High School, received 3rd place honors for a course he
designed called “Applied Economics.”
Students
were motivated through a broad collection of activities and assignments relating
economics to their everyday personal experiences.
Students participated in debates, job-shadowing local business employees,
participating in the Stock Market Game and doing a case study of a local
business.
Governor Thompson and Robert W. Baird & Co.
Chairman Fred Kasten presented the awards at the annual Governor’s Forum, held
on July 22, 1999 at Milwaukee’s Midwest Express Center when more than 700 area
business and community leaders gathered to hear the Governor’s outlook for
Wisconsin in the year 2000 and beyond.
Wisconsin Economics Competition For Students a Big
Success
Back
Experimenting with a new format for Wisconsin’s
High School Economics Competition, more than 120 students from around the state
enjoyed a day of fellowship and friendly, energetic competition to test their
knowledge of economics and challenge their reasoning skills.
Each student that participated received a T-shirt
commemorating the event. Competition
winners received cash awards, individual medallions and a permanent trophy for
their school.
The competition was set up in two divisions,
“Advanced” for those students taking economics at the Honors, or A/P level,
and “General” for all other students. Competitions
were held in Oshkosh and Milwaukee. In
Milwaukee, Jeremy Carr, Sean Harper, Steve Leider and Mike Puskarich, a team
from Marquette University, advised by Mr. Stephen Haessler, won the
“Advanced” division. Andrew Bonvicini, Chris Bailey, Amy Reske and Tom
Gaetta, a team from Kettle Moraine High School, advised by Mr. Dave Rupnow, won
the “General” division. In Oshkosh, Denise Bohmer, Chris Heimarl, Jason
Levash and Leigh Vogel, a team from Brillion High School, advised by Mr. Richard
Sheahan, won the “Advanced” division. Ryan
Devine, Jeremiah Miller, Ben Dempsey and Jeff Hegedus, a team from Oshkosh West
High School, advised by Mr. Jeff Jahnke, won the “General” division.
All four of our Wisconsin winners were invited to participate in the
Federal Reserve Bank’s 7th District Regional Economics Competition.
Two Wisconsin teams went on to win the Fed’s Competition in their
divisions. The Marquette University
High School team won the “Advanced” event and the Oshkosh West High School
team won the “General” event. Congratulations
to our Wisconsin teams!
Dr. James Grunloh, State Program Director for the
Wisconsin Council on Economic Education commented, “The students obviously
enjoyed this new format. I am
already looking toward next year and being able to include more students in the
program.”
The event was co-sponsored with the Council by
International Paper Company. Employees
at International Paper volunteered to help conduct the daylong event.
Dave Kluesner, Regional Public Affairs Manager at International Paper,
commented that “the volunteers thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Each of them commented to me how impressed they were with the students’
knowledge of economic concepts and issues and how involved they would get in the
activities of the day.”
Milwaukee Area Teachers Prepare for Economics License
Back
Thanks to a grant from the Milwaukee
Foundation’s Norman & Ida Sinske Fund, Dr. Mark Schug at the UW-Milwaukee
Center for Economic Education was able to conduct two 3-credit courses for area
teachers during the spring of 1999 to prepare them for an Econ License for
licensing by the State practicing as economics instructors.
Nine teachers completed the two courses of
specialized training approved by the Department of Public Instruction to make
them eligible for obtaining the Wisconsin license certifying them to teach
economics. Sharon Durtka,
Curriculum Specialist for Elementary and Secondary Education at MPS, praised the
project saying, “More of this type of training is necessary. Creative, educational outreach is invaluable because of the
demands being placed on teachers’ time.”
A Picture is Worth
A Thousand Words Back
The Council is pleased to announce a new program
for elementary students, a poster contest that relates
to illustrating one of six economic concepts.
The concepts are scarcity, productive resources, opportunity costs,
specialization, producers and consumers, goods and services.
Twelve winners will each receive a $50 US Savings
Bond. Announcement of the winners
will occur during May, 2000. The
twelve state winners will be advanced to the 7th District Federal
Reserve Bank’s Annual Calendar Competition.
For more
information, contact the Council office or your nearest Center
for Economic Education.
Lutheran Teachers in Appleton Take Summer Class in
Economics
Back
Teachers from six
Lutheran schools participated in a summer economics standards workshop offered
at Fox Valley Lutheran High School in June.
The course was designed to prepare Lutheran teachers to help their
students meet the new Federation of Lutheran Schools Economics Standards that
were included as part of the Social Studies Standards adopted in August, 1998.
The class was offered as a program of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Center for Economic Education and was taught by James Grunloh, Director of the
Center, and Robert Becker, economics instructor at Fox Valley Lutheran High
School. Mr. Becker also serves as
an adjunct faculty member of the economics department at the University of
Wisconsin Oshkosh.
In addition to learning basic economic concepts,
teachers participating in the two-credit workshop reviewed and adapted economic
education materials for use in their classes, became familiar with the Wisconsin
Council’s Online Guide for Teaching Economics, and surveyed numerous websites
useful for obtaining economic information for their classes.
The curriculum projects developed by teachers in the class will be
piloted in the 1999-2000 school year. According
to Mr. Becker who initiated the project, it is hoped that the Federation of
Lutheran Schools in the Fox Valley can follow up this program with another
similar program in the summer of the year 2000. He hopes to have economics
included in the curriculum of all the twenty-one K-8 schools that send students
to Fox Valley Lutheran High School.
Oshkosh School District Teachers Taking
Economics Standards Workshop Back
The Oshkosh Center for
Economic Education is offering the second in a series of four economics
standards workshops for teachers in the Oshkosh Area School District at Oshkosh
North High School. Assistant
Superintendent George Pouba has stated that the district would like to have at
least a hundred teachers participate in the 3-credit program over a two-year
period. The first workshop was
conducted last spring at Oshkosh West High School for twenty-seven K-12
teachers.
Teachers in the program
learn about the economic content included in the Wisconsin Model Economics
Standards. They go on to explore
the Wisconsin Council’s Online Guide, Professor Weiser’s Links to Economic
Information, other Web resources, as well as print materials to review and
select curriculum materials for use in their classrooms. Participants work in
grade level teams on their curriculum development projects in the computer labs
at the high schools. Each team is asked to identify at least five web sites that
contain useful curriculum materials, lesson plans and economic information
appropriate for their grade level. These
lists of useful web sites and teaching ideas are then distributed to all the
participants in the program.
The Oshkosh Center for
Economic Education will be offering similar economics standards workshops for
teachers in east central Wisconsin through their distance learning network this
winter and in the coming spring semester.
MPS Regional
Retains State Title
Back
For the second semester in a row, a Milwaukee
Public School reigns as the state winner of the Stock
Market Game.
Adam Hudson, Eron
Jones and David Richichi, a team of three students from Milwaukee High School of
the Arts that was advised by Ms. Cathi Hunt, finished ahead of more than
four-thousand other teams competing during the spring semester of 1999.
While in New York City, their reward for winning
the competition, the students and their advisor had the opportunity to visit the
actual trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange and learn how the Exchange
functions. According to Ms. Hunt, “This
was an invaluable learning experience for the students.
I know they will remember it for the rest of their lives.”
The trip to New York City, sponsored by Robert
W. Baird & Co. and Midwest
Express Airlines, included taking in the Broadway play, “Les Miserables”,
dinner at café un deux trois, and sight-seeing from the Statue of Liberty to
the set of Saturday Night Live to FAO Schwarz toy store.
Welcome To New Contributors
Back
The Council salutes the following individuals,
corporations and foundations who, as new contributors, have become true partners
in the Council’s efforts to “Help Children Understand How Our Economy
Works.”
Douglas L. Babbach
Joseph A. Bates
Thomas & Lori Boyer
UW-Madison CIBER
Cooperative Resources International
First National Bank of River Falls
Timothy & Anne Gavigan
Green Bay Packers
GROWMARK – FS
Harbor Credit Union
Hoida Family Foundation
W.D. Hoard & Sons Company
Philip & Rosemary Hudson
IBM Corporation
The Wallace H. Jerome Foundation
The Turkey Store Company
Kraft Dairy Trust
Madison Community Foundation
Madison-Kipp Corporation
Mastercraft Industries,
Inc.
Milwaukee Foundation's Norman & Ida Sinske Fund
George A. Mosher
PPG Industries Foundation
Pechiney Plastic Packaging
Riverside Paper Foundation
Rural Insurance Companies
Will Ross Memorial Foundation
Dean L. Ryerson
Split Rail Foundation, Inc.
Sullivan Corporation
Sybron International Corporation
Weyco Group - Charitable Trust
Willis Corroon Corporation
Wisconsin Farm Bureau Foundation
Centers
Back
Beginning this September, the UW-La Crosse Center
for Economic Education is being directed by Dr. George Langelett.
Dr. Langelett recently completed his doctoral studies at the University
of Nebraska and accepted a teaching position at UW-La Crosse.
While doing his graduate work in Nebraska, George worked as a graduate
assistant in the Center for Economic Education – Lincoln, Nebraska.
Dr. Langelett has a good understanding of the EconomicsAmerica network,
the role of a university-based center and he is very excited to start working
with the teachers and school districts around La Crosse.
At the same time, at the UW-Whitewater Center for
Economic Education, the new Director of the Center is Dr. Susan Parks.
Dr. Ashok Bhargava, the most recent Center Director, has taken on the
responsibility of Department Head in Economics and will be relinquishing his
responsibilities at the Center to Dr. Parks.
Dr. Parks is also very familiar with Council activities.
While she was doing graduate study, she worked as a graduate assistant at
the Center for Economic Education at Purdue University in Indiana.
Before getting involved in higher education, she was a middle school
teacher and knows what goes on in the classroom.
She volunteered to direct the UW-Whitewater Center and she is also
anxious to become involved with the school districts and teachers in south
central Wisconsin.
Ron Glasgow, President of the Council stated,
“We are very fortunate to have these talented and enthusiastic educators join
the Wisconsin network of Centers for Economic Education. I am confident the districts in their areas will appreciate
the efforts that they make.”
EconomicsWisconsin
Wisconsin Council on Economic Education
7635 Bluemound Road, Suite 106
Milwaukee, WI 53203
(414) 221-9400
Fax (414) 221-9790
econed@economicswisconsin.org
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