General Economic Resources and Materials

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"The impact of economics on the lives of people is pervasive. Economic forces inform decisions that change the course of history, contribute to the development of different forms of government, shape societies and the roles of their members and lead to the discovery of new frontiers." --W. Lee Hansen

The resources and materials listed on this page are in addition to the resources listed in links on teacher and lesson pages. While there may be links to additional information, these more general resources will involve actual materials for the use in the classroom.

Excellent Economic Resources start close to home! The Ohio Council on Economic Education has a number of affiliated Centers for Economic Education throughout the state. The mission of these Centers is to provide teacher training and materials to K12 schools to increase the quantity and quality of teaching of economics.

Centers welcome contacts from any K12 teacher who would like to learn more about economics, or who would like to learn about materials that can be used to teach economics, either alone or in conjunction with other subjects. Check out the OCEE website to get contact information for an affiliated center near you.

ARTICLES, BOOKS & PERIODICALS

"Favorite Ways to Learn Economics" by David A. Anderson and James Chasey (2001) is described as a framework for teaching basic economic concepts with Scope and Sequence Guidelines, K-12. This new publication first presents a brief explanation of the economic concepts selected for emphasis and then makes recommendations for sequencing these concepts with the curriculum. The accompanying Instructor's Edition contains suggested answers to the lab questions as well as detailed instructions for successful classroom experiments, and other helpful teaching tools. List Price: $37.95. Orders for the text may be placed through the:

National Council on Economic Education
1140 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
PHONE: 800-338-1192
FAX: 212-730-1793
e-mail: econusa@sovusa.com

The National Council on Economic Education also has a books targeted specifically to teaching economics to middle school children. The "Store" features a huge warehouse of economics materials for middle school teachers. Costs range from $12.95 to for 15 lessons that introduces ten economics concepts through activities with modeling clay, to $80 for a teacher's package that will help students apply economics and decision-making skills to the real world of earning and spending an income, savings, using credit, and managing money. There are a number of different publications available on other topics, too, including middle school economics and mini-trading in the classroom.

AUDIO AND VIDEO MATERIALS

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"The economy touches everything we do. The great British economist Alfred Marshall described economics as 'the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life'." From "We're All Economists" by Chris Farrell, Sound Money Economics Editor. Listen or read his talk here.

Audio/Visual Materials Bibliography, created by the Nebraska Council on Economic Education
This document provides a list of videotapes, films, software and filmstrips with item descriptions for K12. Actual media is not included on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM. In some cases, ordering information is provided. Click here for Acrobat file (252 KB): AVBIB.PDF.

"Greed" explores how the profit motive has spurred civilization's accomplishments. Stossel provides examples that show in order to get money from people, you generally have to provide value for them in return, thus everybody wins. Stossel interviews profit-motivated people ranging from Ted Turner to small business owners to assembly-line workers and shows how their self-interest becomes society's gain. The video runs 42 minutes.

Stossel in the Classroom VIDEO KITS include the ABC News Special, a Teacher's Guide, and a Student Study Guide. Each video (and corresponding guides) is segmented into three parts to allow for maximum classroom discussion. Check out samples of the video here.

Free videos to explain economics are available from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco:

FRB of SF
Public Information
101 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94125

A free CD ROM called Virtual Economics is available from NCEE:

National Council on Economic Education
1-800-338-1192

Students in grades 4-8 will appreciate the video titled "Life of a Dollar Bill," which is available from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This video "introduces the basic need for money, and the circular flow of resources between households, businesses, government, and financial institutions as told by Mr. Dollar Bill." Teacher's guide outlines goals, vocabulary, and discussion questions.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Public Information Department
33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045

MATERIALS ON THE INTERNET

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One of the most valuable characteristics of the Web is its ability to provide the most up-to-date information for the classroom, keeping data on charts and overheads fresh and timely.

On the webpage "Economic Resources and Curricular Materials for Teachers" there is a wealth of resources and materials for educators, along with either links, phone numbers or other contact information. Some of the materials are lessons are in PDF form and you can use them right away. Others are descriptions of larger sets of materials (teacher guides, lesson plans, activities, etc) that can be ordered for a small fee. Also on this EcEdWeb page, you'll find an extensive list of links to useful websites and a link to "Using the Internet to Teach Economics: An Idea Page."

Teaching Economics on the World Wide Web is a full-service resource page with dozens of economic resources for teachers, information on how to use economic data from the web with existing material, and economic and social sciences on the web. This page was written by Kim Sosin and Mary Lynn Reiser of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

SCAVENGER HUNT

Try your hand at the Economics Scavenger Hunt. This scavenger hunt was developed courtesy of similar hunts created by Doug Haskell at The Economics Center for Education and Research at the University of Cincinnati and Roger Sylvester, Wright State University.