MCEE Microeconomics for High School Teaching Summer 2015 Introduction This is an online course intended for in-service and pre-service teachers who want to build or enhance their content knowledge in microeconomics and their pedagogical skills in teaching microeconomics to high school students. The course will include strategies for developing curriculum and instruction for microeconomics that engage students of diverse backgrounds. The course consists of both self-paced and synchronized online learning activities and will be offered over a period of twelve weeks during the summer of 2015, from June 8 to August 28. The prerequisites for this course are: licensed secondary school teachers in social studies, business, consumer science, or agricultural education; or pre-service secondary school teachers in a teaching licensure program in social studies, business, consumer science, or agricultural education; or consent of instructor. The materials for the course are divided into four modules, with each module covering three related chapters in the textbook. Course materials for each chapter include: - a McGraw-Hill ebook chapter - instructor s multimedia PowerPoint presentations (and the scripts) - an adaptive learning assignment provided by the publisher (LearnSmart) - online discussion forums on chapter content and pedagogical tools for teaching the content to high school students Additionally, there will be ten scheduled synchronized videoconferences on teaching the content, and weekly virtual office hours. Course Description Economics is not a collection of settled facts, to be copied down, memorized and recited. Rather, it is a way of thinking about the world. Broadly speaking, the term microeconomics is used to describe the study of individual choices and of group choices in individual markets, how those choices affect the well-being of the members of society, and how those choices are influenced by the underlying forces of society. Economists have developed some simple but widely applicable principles that are helpful for making rational decisions ranging from the relatively straightforward consumption and saving decisions that individuals make every day to highly complex business, production, public policy and international affairs decisions. Throughout the course, we will address questions such as: 1
How do business entities participate in the product and resource markets for the purpose of maximizing profit? How do household entities participate in the product and resource markets for the purpose of maximizing utility? How do business and household entities interact in a frictionless world of perfect markets? How do business and household entities interact in markets plagued by a variety of market imperfections such as externalities, incomplete property rights, free-rider problems associated with the provision of public goods, principal-agent problems, and market power? How is the fruit of production shared among members of society and how should it be shared? What are the motivations, instruments, and consequences of government interventions (or lack thereof) in the above-mentioned markets? Instruction Team Course Instructor: Martha Rush Mounds View High School Teacher MCEE Master Teacher (Minnesota Council on Economic Education) Email: rushx123@umn.edu Phone: (651)398-6434 Ms. Rush will lead the synchronized videoconferences on best practices of teaching microeconomics to high school students, monitor progress on LearnSmart assignments and other activities, help build a vibrant online learning community, answer questions in Course Q&A Forum and via email, assign topics for and monitor the Chapter Discussion Forum, and provide virtual office hours. Her office hours schedule will be posted on the course Moodle site. Course Director: Donald Liu Professor and Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota Executive Director, MCEE Email: dliu@umn.edu Phone: (612)625-6765 The course is designed by Professor Liu who has created a set of multimedia PowerPoint presentations for each chapter covered in the course. Professor Liu will be available for answering questions via email/phone and will provide virtual office hours upon request. Logistic Coordinator: Andrea Hanson Program and Communications Associate, MCEE Email: hans1577@umn.edu Phone: (612)625-3727 Please contact Ms. Hanson for any non-technology related logistic issues. See Technology Support Helplines on the course Moodle site for issues related to technology. Course Technology 2
This is an online course that uses many technologies to support student learning, interaction, and communication. To participate and complete course activities and assignments you will need to have: 1. Reliable high speed Internet connection 2. Webcam 3. Microphone 4. Adobe Flash Player (see below for details) Course Moodle Site: The course site is supported by the Moodle course management system. To access the course Moodle site, go to: https:// (to be provided), and login with the U of M Internet ID we provide you. Multimedia PowerPoint Presentations: Instructor s presentations are in multimedia format supported by Flash, and housed in the course Moodle site. To view these presentations, you will need Adobe Flash Player on your desktop/laptop. You can download the software for free at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/. McGraw-Hill ebook and LearnSmart Assignments: For this course you will use McGraw-Hill's ebook and LearnSmart (LS) assignments, which are housed in McGraw-Hill s Connect. This textbook is included in your registration fee. Instructions will be provided. WebEx for Synchronized Videoconferences: The synchronized teaching conferences are supported by WebEx. The instructor will send you a link via email prior to each scheduled date; use the link to access the designated conference. You do not need to install WebEx software on your desktop/laptop. You do need an internal or external camera and speaker. A pair of headphones is recommended. WebEx for Virtual Office Hours: For office hours, please set up appointments with the instructor via email. You will then receive a WebEx link to access the designated office hour session. The instructor may choose to accommodate more than one individual in a given session. If you wish to talk with the instructor alone, please indicate so in your email. Required Course Materials and Activities Course ebook: McConnell, Brue and Flynn, Microeconomics, Brief Edition (2nd edition, McGraw Hill/Irwin, 2013). We will cover the first 12 chapters of the ebook, one chapter per week. The ebook is housed in McGraw- Hill Connect. The chapters to be covered, the dates that a specific chapter will be covered, and the benchmark codes of the Minnesota social studies standards addressed in the chapters are listed in the table below: 3
MN Social Studies Dates Benchmarks Module 1: Introduction Chapter 1: Limits, Alternatives, and Choices 9.2.1.1.1, 9.2.3.3.1 June 8 ~ June 14 9.2.3.4.1 Chapter 2: The Market System and the Circular Flow 9.2.3.4.2, 9.2.3.4.3 June 15 ~ June 21 9.2.4.5.1, 9.2.4.5.2 Chapter 3: Demand, Supply, and Market Equilibrium 9.2.4.5.3, 9.2.4.5.4 June 22 ~ June 28 9.2.4.5.5, 9.2.4.5.6 Module 2: Elasticity, Market Failures, and Business Cost Structure Ch4: Elasticity of Demand and Supply 9.2.4.5.3, 9.2.4.5.4 June 29 ~ July 5 9.2.4.5.6 Ch5: Market Failures: Public Goods and Externalities 9.2.4.8.2 July 6 ~ July 12 Ch6: Businesses and Their Costs 9.2.4.6.2, 9.2.4.7.3 July 13 ~ July 19 Module 3: Product Markets and Market Structures Ch7: Pure Competition 9.2.4.6.1, 9.2.4.6.2 July 20 ~ July 26 Ch8: Pure Monopoly 9.2.4.6.1, 9.2.4.6.2 July 27 ~ Aug 2 9.2.4.8.1 Ch9: Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly 9.2.4.6.1, 9.2.4.6.2 Aug 3 ~ Aug 9 9.2.4.8.1 Module 4: Resource Markets and Government Ch10: Wage Determination 9.2.4.7.1 Aug 10 ~ Aug 16 Ch11: Income Inequality and Poverty 9.2.4.8.3 Aug 17 ~ Aug 23 Ch12: Public Finance: Expenditures and Taxes 9.2.4.5.1, 9.2.4.5.4 Aug 24 ~ Aug 28 LearnSmart (LS) Assignments: For each chapter, you will complete a LearnSmart (LS) assignment, which provides you with the opportunity to better understand and practice the concepts covered in the chapter. Each LS assignment will consist of a number of items, representing the topics or concepts that you should master. When you answer a question about a specific item correctly, the item will be removed from your queue. If you answer the question incorrectly, however, the item will stay in your queue and a slightly different question related to the item will be posed later on. If you make mistakes on a specific concept several times in a row, the program will recommend a timeout and direct you to a specific section of the ebook. On average, it will take about 45 minutes to complete each LS assignment. Note that you do not need to complete your LS assignment in one sitting, and you can always achieve 100% if you are willing to put in the time. To encourage you to complete each LS assignment in a timely basis, there will be a deduction of five points (on a 100 points scale) for each day (24 hours) past the due date. The due dates for the LS assignments and chapter discussion forums (see next subsection) are listed in the table below: 4
Due Dates and Times Ch1 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch2 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch3 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch4 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch5 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch6 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch7 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch8 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch9 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch10 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch11 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum Ch12 LS Assignment and Discussion Forum June 14 (11:00 p.m.) June 21 (11:00 p.m.) June 28 (11:00 p.m.) July 5 (11:00 p.m.) July 12 (11:00 p.m.) July 19 (11:00 p.m.) July 26 (11:00 p.m.) August 2 (11:00 p.m.) August 9 (11:00 p.m.) August 16 (11:00 p.m.) August 23 (11:00 p.m.) August 28 (11:00 p.m.) Chapter Discussion Forums: The class will be divided into several asynchronous discussion groups of four to five members each. You will work with the same group throughout the course and use your group discussion area. Discussion questions for each chapter will be provided by the instructor. Post your responses on a timely basis in your group. In your response, please discuss how you would approach the topic at hand with your students to make it relevant, interesting and challenging. You are also responsible for reading and replying to at least 2 posts by other members of your group. The due dates for the chapter discussion forums are the same as those for the LS assignments and are listed in the previous subsection. Multimedia PowerPoint Presentations: There will be instructor s multimedia PowerPoint presentations in Adobe Flash format. The presentations for all the 12 chapters will be posted on the course Moodle site on June 1, 2015. Syncronized Videoconferences on Teaching Economics: There will be ten videoconferences, one hour each. The videoconferences will be instructor-led and focus on selected materials suitable for teaching high school students the concepts covered in specific chapters. The WebEx platform will give you options for interacting with the instructor and the class in the conference Tentative dates for the videoconferences are listed in the table below, along with the topics to be covered. The instructor will work with you to come up with the optimal schedule. 5
Videoconference 1 Topics Ch1 - Limits, Alternatives, and Choices Ch2 - Market Systems & the Circular Flow Dates June 22 Videoconference 2 Ch3 - Demand, Supply, and Market Equilibrium June 29 Videoconference 3 Ch4 - Elasticity of Demand and Supply July 6 Videoconference 4 Ch5 - Market Failures: Public Goods and Externalities July 13 Videoconference 5 Ch6 - Businesses and Their Costs July 20 Videoconference 6 Ch7 - Pure Competition July 27 Videoconference 7 Ch8 - Pure Monopoly August 3 Videoconference 8 Ch9 - Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly August 10 Videoconference 9 Ch10 - Wage Determination August 17 Videoconference 10 Ch11 - Income Inequality and Poverty August 24 Note: All videoconferences will take place at 7:00 p.m. of the designated dates.* *Time is tentative. Instructor will choose a time that works best with the participants. Completion Requirements Upon completion of the course requirements specified below, students take this course on a non-credit basis will receive: 1. A Certificate in Teaching High School Microeconomics from MCEE and the Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and 2. 50 continuing education credits, issued by MCEE To qualify for the MCEE certificate and continuing education credits at the end of the course, you will need to: 1. Achieve an average score of 80 percent in the 12 LS assignments 2. Attend at least seven of the ten videoconferences on teaching high school economics 3. Participate in all the 12 Chapter Discussion Forums 6