Economic Education

Two announcements that show the options for economics instrutors who want to impact economic education.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently funded an initiative to promote the use of innovative economic education at community colleges (see http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1043245).

The project is co-led by Mark Maier, Glendale Community College (CA), and Cathryn Manduca, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College (MN).

The first phase of this project will bring together 20 economic educators for a workshop to plan regionally-based outreach programs and workshops for community college economics instructors. The economic educators will be joined by 8 experts from other disciplines that have already developed national outreach programs targeting community college instructors. The entire group will meet in Palo Alto, CA, May 31-June 1, 2011. Working in a collaborative manner, building on material prepared in advance of the meeting, the group will develop plans for four regionally-based training programs to take place during 2011-2012. Participants in the June workshop will be encouraged to apply to take part in these efforts.

The NSF grant will pay the following expenses for the economic educators selected to participate in this workshop:

* two nights, hotel and meals for representatives from four-year colleges and universities;
* two nights, hotel, meals and travel for representatives from two-year institutions.

This meeting was intentionally scheduled just prior to the inaugural National Conference on Teaching Economics and Research in Economic Education (June 1-3, 2011, Palo Alto, CA) http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/AEACEE/Conference/index.htm < http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/AEACEE/Conference/index.htm> with the hope that workshop participants would also be able to participate in the conference. Note, however, that the grant will not pay for the conference registration or for accommodation after June 1.


National Conference on Teaching Economics and Research in Economic Education
June 1-3, 2011 Palo Alto, CA

The AEA Committee on Economic Education, in cooperation with the Journal of Economic Education, will host a national conference on Teaching Economics (at the undergraduate and graduate levels) and Research in Economic Education (all levels, including precollege) from June 1-3, 2011.

The venue for the conference will be the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, with a dinner on June 1 at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. Due to space constraints, registrations will be limited to 150.

Plenary sessions at the conference will include:

■Vernon Smith, "Bringing Experiments and the Scottish Enlightenment into the Classroom"

■B. Douglas Bernheim, "What Have We Learned About the Effects of Economic and Financial Education on Household Financial Decisions?"

■John Taylor, “Lessons from the Financial Crisis for Teaching Economics”