Socratic Method

I had considered applying the Socratic method in my classes. However, I never figured out how to do it in an Economics course. I am glad I never tried it because faculty members at other schools are denied tenure. Here is an Article.

Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies | Video on TED.com

Musical Approach To Econ

I need to learn how to rap!

Reading on Game Theory

All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.—Sun Tzu

I am thinking that students would be interested in game theory. They like the element of surprise. Last semester they would become extremely engaged only if I challenged their common beliefs. They would try to prove me wrong only to lose because I would set up the rules of the game. I need to come up with some more that will challenge their beliefs.

Debating Books

During the past two weeks I have been reading spousonomics and next I will start reading The Invisible Hook: the hidden economics of pirates. I may assign one or the other to my Econ 106 next Fall.
After reading both books the question I need to ask will students be more interested in the married life or piracy?

For a long time now I have been thinking of taking a drawing class to improve my teaching. I imagined drawing pictures that tell stories for students and gets them engaged in the lesson similar to what is done in the video below. But I ran across a website called Behaviorgap.com which does the same thing but with very little artistic ability (picture above).


Double-dip recession from Marketplace on Vimeo.

Excitement Today

This Hawk showed up today in the middle of my lecture and the students were excitied by seeing him there. I watched students who were forcing themselves to stay awake wake up in an instant. Was it the surprise element or the fact that something real was in front of them?

Diminishing Marginal Utility Experiment

Yesterday, I conducted the Chocolate experiment with my class. On Monday I gave them the lecture on Jeremy Bentham,  Utility and Marginal Utility. Most of them accepted the idea as presented and said "that makes sense"!
On Wednesday (yesterday) I conducted the experiment but made sure the result would not match the results as presented in the lecture. I gave them a variety of chocolate so that the Marginal Utility would not fall. To my surprise the students picked up on this and criticized my experiment (see the end of the first video).


After this first round, I ran the experiment as it was meant to be run. I gave all of the credit to the students and the experiment worked out as Jeremy predicted.

Maybe Next Semester

 I just order the book Spousonomics after hearing an interview with the authors on Marketplace. If this book is any good, next year I will use it for Econ 106.
Topics covered match the course outline for the class. According to the table of contents on Amazon and on their website,  topics  in the book are 1) Division of Labor 2) Incentives 3)Supply and Demand  and 4) Moral Hazard.  I would need another book to cover the macro topics listed in the course outline.

Second Week Of Class

I have started listening and creating lectures based on lectures given by various famous economists at top schools. I find these lectures on i-tunes U and spend the weekends listening taking notes.
Next I think about how I can simplify the material for my introductory class and create power points.  Today I tested one of these PowerPoint in class and it was a success.
The students wanted to know more and I gave them the link to the episode on i-tunes U.  Actually one girl with an i-pod touch asked me if she had downloaded the correct course or not?
This lecture was a simplified version of one given by Robert Shiller given to his Financial Market class at Yale.

Mike has recommended that you check out Financial Markets - Video

		Mike has recommended that you check out Financial Markets - Video:
		Financial Markets - Video Robert Shiller Finance 30 Ratings

iTunes Store Please note that you have not been added to any email lists. Copyright © 2011 Apple Inc. All rights reserved

Econ haiku

The following haikus are from freakomomics website:
No. 1, posted by Tim:

Demand curve slopes down
Because the more cake I eat,
The less cake I want.
No. 2, posted by Calum:

A friend and I, jailed;
We agreed to stay silent
(But I still confessed).
No. 3, posted by LiaStarLight:

No matter how hard
I shake my money maker,
It is not enough.
No. 4, posted by Nate C.:

Sales of ice cream seem
To correlate with crime rate?
Simply summer heat.
No. 5, posted by Sean:

Can we work it out
If there aren’t transaction costs?
But of Coase we can.
No. 6, posted by Sophie:

Haiku writers know
The opportunity cost
Of a syllable.

Vocabulary Econ 106

Need to cut down the number of vocabulary words from the novel? Should I stick to the Econ words? Or keep al the words?
I worry that I will lose the better students but at the same time I worry about students who are not readers. I am leaning toward letting English teachers worry about the reading skills of the students and stick to the economics.

Econ 106 novel

Taking a chance on using a novel for Econ 106. I have created a list of vocabulary words from the reading of the first chapter . The concept is to use vocabulary quizzes and comprehension questions. The next step is to create the comprehension questions needed.

Restarting this Blog

After a long time, 3 to 4 years, I have decided to get this blog rolling again. I hope to put down my observations and attempts at making Economics fun and understandable for my students. Also I will post my failures to communicate basic economic concepts. This is not an economics blog but a blog about teaching the Dismal Science better known as Economics.