Introducing Students to and Creating Curiosity about learning Principles of Economics

Susan McMaster
Frederick Community College
Author Profile
This material is replicated on a number of sites as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service Project
Initial Publication Date: January 3, 2018

Summary

As noted by Jose Vazquez in the abstract for his presentations at the 2017 CTREE and International Atlantic Economic Society titled The match that starts the fire! Curiosity, information gaps, and stimulating classroom engagement "one could argue curiosity is an essential requirement for any student to learn anything". He also noted that "before any student learns anything, he or she must WANT to learn it; and curiosity is at the center of this" (Vazquez). One of the issues that arises though is that many students in a Principles of Economics course do not have much of a foundation from which to build curiosity. This activity is designed for day 1 of an introductory principles of economics course to help create curiosity and relevance on the part of the students, while simultaneously reassuring those who may not have a foundation from which to build that curiosity and relevance that they will be able to succeed in the course.

In this activity students are placed in teams and asked to put together a simple (24 or 48 piece) jigsaw puzzle. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle become a metaphor for the various components of economics they will be studying during the course of the semester. Putting the pieces together represents the idea that in economics, while the concepts and theories are learned in steps and it is important to have some core principles that must be understood (the edge pieces of the puzzle), the concepts are often interlocking and it can be hard to see the full picture until the puzzle is put together. Putting the puzzle together is then integrated with discussions of the questions that can be answered through economic theory. After the students put the puzzle together and the metaphor is explained, students are reassured that it is okay to not know anything yet - they might not have know who the character was on the puzzle or what the puzzle looked like when they started, but we will introduce all the important concepts by the end of the course. Simultaneously, by presenting some intriguing questions that economics helps to address, we begin developing curiosity about economics. Thus, the students understand that they have a lot to learn, but they are curious about how the concepts apply to them and want to learn more about them. Ultimately, wanting to learn more about the topics will encourage them to read the materials and explore beyond the textbook helping students start to bridge the gaps they may have in the concepts.

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Learning Goals

Provide an overview of macroeconomics

Develop an understanding that topics within economics are intertwined

Create curiosity about how economics is seen in and is relevant to everyday activities

Context for Use

This is an interactive activity designed for day 1 of an introductory economics course where the majority of students do not have a background in economics. The activity and subsequent discussion takes 20 - 25 minutes depending on the difficulty of the puzzles and the amount of discussion on the part of the students. It requires sufficient small puzzles (24 - 48 pieces) for each team of 4 - 5 students to have a puzzle. (I found that puzzles the students can relate to work best - cartoon characters they may be familiar with from childhood). After the discussion regarding the metaphor, a word map with a number of different economic concepts is shared, noting that economics may seem like a "big mess" right now, then a puzzle template with economic concepts is shared, noting that while the terms don't mean much now, we will look at each one during the semester and by the end the picture will become more clear.

It can be adapted to online by posting a picture of a puzzle piece to each student's mailbox and asking the students to describe what they think the entire puzzle looks like. Once the students have answered, a picture of the entire puzzle is posted and further discussion is encouraged regarding the difference between what the students thought the puzzle would look like and what it actually looks like.

In addition, a picture of a puzzle template (slide) with economic concepts on each piece is posted along with an explanation of the metaphor of the puzzle, as above, regarding how economics is introduced in pieces that often interlock together.

Description and Teaching Materials

1. Form teams

2. Give each student a piece of the puzzle (24 piece/48 piece puzzle) their team is going to put together.

a. Have the students discuss what they think the finished puzzle will look like when they are done.

3. List some of the following questions on the board/screen and ask the students what the answers might be to the questions.

a. Why do you stop eating after a certain point at a buffet or at a big family meal?

b. Why do we have to make decisions about what to buy?

c. Why do you choose to go out with friends on Friday night rather than studying?

d. Why do your grandparents say "everything is so expensive now?"

e. How are your tax dollars spent? What impact do they have on you?

f. Why are Super Bowl tickets so expensive?

g. How can economics concepts help explain sleep deprivation in some people?

h. If women are paid less, why aren't they working more in higher positions?

i. Why don't all speak the same language?

j. Why do economies expand sometimes, raising employment and living standards and shrink at other times?

k. What happened in 2008–09 when the world economy was hit by the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s? How did a crisis initially limited to the financial market eventually hit the entire economy? And what caused the financial market crisis in the first place? How did government policy respond to the crisis and was this response effective?

l. Why do we have inflation? Is inflation a bad thing? Is there anything we can do to reduce inflation?

m. Why do we have unemployment? Is unemployment a bad thing? Do policies to reduce unemployment work?

Note for the students that we don't have all the pieces yet to answer these questions with more than opinion. We see part of the puzzle with each question.

4. Have the team, without the box, put the puzzle together.

a. Give the students 5 or so minutes to put the puzzle together

i. Ask the students the question: "What made putting the puzzle together difficult?" or alternatively "What would have made putting the puzzle together easier?"

The general answer will be if they had the box cover with the picture.

5. Discuss how each piece of the puzzle was necessary to form the entire picture, and seeing the entire picture makes it easier to put together, but also see the big picture.

6. Explain where the students are now, they can't necessarily see the big picture of the economy, it is all around them, and yet, it is not clear. Right now the class and economics may seem like a big jumble of words (share an economics Word cloud). Just like the puzzle was there, but until all the pieces were together, you have visions of what the puzzle looked like, but weren't 100% clear. The economy is much the same, you see parts, but may not "see" the big picture. There are many parts to the economy that we have to consider in order to address the questions presented. Each piece of the puzzle (show econ puzzle slide) represents a different topic that we will be discussing during the semester, including for example, GDP, Opportunity Costs, Production Possibilities, Unemployment, Inflation

a. By themselves they are each like the piece of the puzzle, you can describe it, but it doesn't mean much

b. By the end of the semester, as you have gathered all of the pieces of the "economic" puzzle, you will be able to put the different pieces together and see the "relationship" (the way the pieces fit together) to form the entire picture of the economy

c. Right now you may/may not know a lot about economics so it may be daunting to consider and you may not be looking forward to it because it is something new and you have heard horrible things about econ class, but as we learn the building blocks and put them all together, it will hopefully make sense.

d. Watch the following video - https://www.coursera.org/learn/principles-of-macroeconomics/lecture/aHeei/an-overview-of-modern-macroeconomics

7. To further encourage students to look outside of class and the textbook for applications, share with them some relevant articles. If computers are available, provide list of sites/select copies of different articles/find timely local or national articles related to topics covering. Some examples include:

a. Fed raises rates - https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/13/fed-hikes-rates-by-a-quarter-point.html

b. US Consumer Price Index Rose - https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/13/us-consumer-price-index-nov-2017.html

c. Is Bitcoin a Bubble? - https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2017/12/13/is-bitcoin-a-bubble-96-of-economists-say-yes/

d. Buying local is more expensive than it looks - https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21731633-local-content-requirements-make-appealing-slogans-bad-policies-buying-local

e. Decade since recession - https://www.fredericknewspost.com/public/ap/decade-since-recession-thriving-cities-leave-others-behind/article_12ab3b01-3a11-514b-ab03-dcb37d4577e7.html

<a>f. How can economics concepts help explain sleep deprivation in some people?</a>http://www.nber.org/papers/w2988

g. What does economics say about the gender pay gap? http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-true-story-of-the-gender-pay-gap-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

h. Can economics help explain why we <a>don't all speak the same language</a>? http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-dont-we-speak-language/

8. Have each team select a different article

9. Have each team summarizes their article, ensure they

a. Try to identify an economic concept within each article

b. Write each concept in chart on board/sticky paper

i. Note the chapters in text/week in course you will be discussing the concept/theory found in the article.

Materials Summary:

Several 24 - 48 piece puzzles (need enough puzzles for each team of 4 - 5 students to have one)

Computers and list of articles/copies of current macroeconomic articles

Whiteboard or Post-it Paper

Slides with questions and puzzle template with economics concepts

Teaching Notes and Tips

In asking the questions, such as "How can economics help explain why do you choose to go out with friends on Friday night rather than studying?" or "How can economics help explain why you stop eating at Thanksgiving dinner?", students generally answer in terms such as going out is more fun or because I'm full. This gives the instructor the opportunity to discuss jargon within economics and also point out the economics terms.

You may wish to save time at the end of the exercise to ask students what they anticipate learning about in the class or what they would like to learn about during the semester. Depending on their responses you can clarify as to whether that is a topic that you will be going into depth in or not. If not, you can point them to the course that does cover that concept or note that it is covered in a more advanced economics course as appropriate.


Assessment

Note that the point of this exercise is to increase learning and interest throughout the semester. To the extent you wish to determine if the exercise is effective, in the short term, review the article summaries to determine what economic concepts with which the students are familiar. Note the topics the students are interested in learning about during the semester and whether this list is extensive or not.

You may also want to assess the effectiveness of the activity at the end of the semester by asking if knowing that the course was going to come together in pieces was helpful and by reviewing responses to end of course surveys to determine if students felt better prepared for the course.

References and Resources

Link to images for blank jigsaw puzzles for economics terms -here

Curiosity slides to be included in deck (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 406kB Dec26 17)