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Tomorrow in my economics class I get to teach whatever subject I want for the entire hour. I can't really think of much that would keep the entire class awake, yet keep my teacher from booting me out of class.
The class is a required class, meaning that every little ignorant student in my school has to pass it to graduate. Now, normally I'm in the higher classes in my school, like the honors and AP classes, so I can't really attempt to teach them anything too complicated. I also can't really do anything like 'The theory behind SK Terran', as no one would know what the hell I was talking about
So, what are some of your ideas as to what I could teach my economics class tomorrow? I need somewhat of a lesson plan, as it needs to take up around an hour.
EDIT:
Alright let me elaborate...
It's a Junior/Senior economics class (11th/12th). About 95% of the kids aren't really "top notch students". I have access to a computer which can display stuff on the board and/or I can get copies for everyone or sheets to put on the overhead projector.
 
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United States24805 Posts
What technology do you have available? Do you have access to make photocopies? What grade(s) are the students?
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Haha, I really know what what you mean. Required classes are most often a cesspool of ignorant students. Does the topic actually have to relate to economics?
You could try talking about:
Global recession
Stocks
Following a particular product/service and showing the whys and hows
I don't really know. As far as I know, it is very hard to get the ignorant students to be involved. What I would do is try to make it a great day for the other 5% rather than trying to make the other 95% happy.
EDIT: I may have put a bit of an elitist undertone =P.
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On November 13 2008 07:31 Anihc wrote:
Game theory.
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United States17042 Posts
game theory would actually be hecka cool, because you can use up like 10-20 minutes with some sort of demo involving the prisoners dilemma (technically it's a "example question" used for game theory, although lots of people use the term prisoners dilemma and game theory interchangeably). It's also fairly interesting, and has lots of examples irl.
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United States24805 Posts
This assignment sounds like it has absolutely nothing to do with the objectives of the course you are enrolled in. Is this graded or for shits and giggles?
If he wants some kind of a lesson plan you can have a look at this general format (starting with the very obvious and going to the somewhat less obvious I suppose):
- Name of teacher
- Date and period of lesson
- Materials used
- Standards to be addressed (if possible try to find a curriculum guide for whatever topic you are trying to teach so that you can identify which specific standards (learning objectives) you are addressing from the year-long curriculum. This is obviously not very important for you in a stand-alone lesson that does not have to draw from any specific curriculum.
- Objective (what you would tell the students is the purpose of the lesson from the beginning. For example, students will be able to solve a quadratic equation)
- Essential Questions (what are some questions that you are going to ask that are pivotal to helping the students understand the content objectives)
- Do Now / Warmup / etc (what activity will be ready for the students to complete from the moment the bell rings at the start of class; it is highly recommended to have one, even if it is just a question written on the board. This will either allow students to start thinking about what they are about to learn, or draw on prior knowledge in order to refresh their memory prior to applying it to the new material.
- Strategy (basically a step by step list of what the students are going to do) Example: Do now; Worksheet 1; Powerpoint presentation A; etc
- Closure (Your final activity should somehow report back to you on how well the class actually understood what you wanted them to learn; it can be something you collect as a sort of 'exit ticket' or it can be a short interactive activity where you use questioning and/or polling to gauge approximately how well the class is doing)
Feel free to modify this every bit as much as you want. I purposefully gave you the run-through just to allow you to think about it, but I doubt you are going to actually consider all these things in your first lesson.
As for topic, this goes without saying, but try to pick something that you would definitely enjoy teaching, and that the class would consider tolerable. It's difficult to teach when many members of the class expect it to be really hard or out there, even if it actually is very accessible. It's hard to change peoples' minds. I guess it would help if you could find out exactly what would or wouldn't be acceptable in your teacher's eyes.
edit: oh yeah and definitely over plan. Don't want to get caught with free time at the end, but wear a watch and be prepared to pull out some of the less necessary stuff as you get behind.
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play that zeitgeist film imo
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you sound like an arrogant dick by judging peoples intelligence based upon what classes they are taking.
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United States24805 Posts
On November 13 2008 08:59 CultureMisfits wrote:
you sound like an arrogant dick by judging peoples intelligence based upon what classes they are taking.
I don't think he actually did. However, he could have put that much more delicately.
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teach them the power of macromanagement and that can > micro.
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On November 13 2008 07:40 waterGHOSTCLAWdragon wrote:
game theory would actually be hecka cool, because you can use up like 10-20 minutes with some sort of demo involving the prisoners dilemma (technically it's a "example question" used for game theory, although lots of people use the term prisoners dilemma and game theory interchangeably). It's also fairly interesting, and has lots of examples irl.
Even better, instead of a demo, split the class into groups and have them play a few prisoners dilemma type games for a bit, then segue into optimal strategies and real world economic examples.
Stocks and global credit crisis material probably wouldn't keep anyone awake.
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Difference between 14cc and FD in terms of economics.
and the timing of your 3rd expansion on how it affects your building production.
Those are real economic stuff...you just gotta frame it right.
I am not trying to be funny either.
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show excerpts from "A Beautiful Mind" ?:D
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I recently did 'The Impact of Advertising in Oligopolistic markets'
Do you think they would be hooked ?
And anyway, you can screw what the students think. Find something that is interesting for you and what amuses yourself, and they some people will enjoy it only because of your enthusiasm 
Economics of the Gaming industry are a great example, and you can elaborate on Revenue Maximising Strategy from Blizzard in Starcraft 2.
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On November 13 2008 08:10 geometryb wrote:
play that zeitgeist film imo
I hope to god this is a troll.
IMO you should discuss this article: The End of Wall Street's Boom
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On November 13 2008 08:59 CultureMisfits wrote:
you sound like an arrogant dick by judging peoples intelligence based upon what classes they are taking.
Chill out, where in his whole post did he JUDGE people's intelligence BASED on their CLASSES? It's the complete truth that there are idiots in government/economic classes since they're required. I don't see any judging here at all.
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Give them a quiz:
You have 5 points. You have the option of putting any number of points into a community pool, or you may withhold them for yourself. All the points put in the community pool will be doubled and redistributed evenly amongst the class. The amount of points you end up with will be your grade on the quiz.
How many points will you donate to the community pool?
It's a perfect segue into the free rider problem. when we did this in econ, everyone in the class was like "hey, put it all in the pool, that way we all get 10 points and get an A!" sounds good, right?
Well, what if i decide to keep all my points? the five points missing from the pool won't be enough to bring down the number of points given out, so everyone else will still get 10, but i'll get 15! of course, on the flip side, if nobody puts in any points, everyone will end up with 5 points. It's a very interesting problem.
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On November 13 2008 08:10 geometryb wrote:
play that zeitgeist film imo
That would be legendary.
On a related note, I don't understand why schools never address views which are considered wrong. Like go over something that was believed to be true for a very long time, then discuss why it is wrong. Perhaps students may actually build up critical thinking abilities if they did that.
Or at least make it clear where there are questionable concepts. Such as energy. Energy is not the ability to do work. No one knows what energy is.
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EPT
