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E-CONnections |
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Curricula
ICEE Partners with Students in Free Enterprise ICEE Partners with Students in Free EnterpriseThe Illinois Council on Economic Education, in cooperation with the Rock Valley College Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team, invites students and teachers alike to browse the current issue of the Newspapers in Education (NIE) section of the Rockford Register Star. The Spring 2006 issue of NIE, available March 16, features an engaging piece that includes applications for decision making and financial literacy. A complementary Teacher’s Guide is also available, providing a number of resources for teachers, students and schools. Download the Teacher's Guide at the ICEE web site's What's New page. MoneySmart Essay Contest Deadline ApproachingWe are pleased to announce an opportunity for your students to show what they know about managing money. Please visit the ICEE web site's What's New page for complete details regarding the 2006 MoneySmart Essay Contest for grades 1 through 12 and the MoneySmart Kid Competition. The winning MSKid will be provided with a $5,000 scholarship,
made possible by HSBC Bank! If you have any questions that are
not answered in the document referenced above, please contact
Nancy Hanlon Harrison at ICEE. Financial Literacy Project for Chicago Public SchoolsFinancial Fitness for Kids (FFFK), a financial literacy project for Chicago Public Schools, has been developed to integrate financial education across the curriculum. The comprehensive Financial Fitness For Life K-5 curriculum materials provide the core of the program. Each teacher is asked to implement five lessons during the Spring 2006 semester. The initiative is sponsored by the City Treasurer's Office, City
of Chicago and involves twenty-one CPS schools. For more information,
please contact Beth Metzler
at ICEE. New Elementary Curricula: From Role Plays to Parallelograms to Tic-Tac-ToeThe National Council on Economic Education recently released the new Focus: Grades 3-5 Economics. This thorough curriculum uses communications and thinking skills to introduce core economics concepts, all with a "focus" that will spur a lifelong interest in economics for your students. The lessons encourage students to build a foundation in essential life skills, such as teamwork, critical analysis, and negotiation skills using simulations, games, stories and role-playing activities. This curriculum piece provides a practical guide for teaching elementary economics and is equipped with glossaries, teaching tips, and easy to adapt lesson plans. The new NCEE curriculum Mathematics and Economics: Connections for Life, Grades 3-5 provides 12 standards-based lessons that reinforce mathematical concepts using real life economic examples experienced by 8-10 year olds. Why teach mathematics and economics together? In the elementary classroom today, math is a dynamic discipline that incorporates current events and includes essential processes such as problem solving, reasoning, communication, connections, and representations. Students will engage in fun, hands-on activities; lessons will have students making brownies (and choices!) and building kites, all with the end result of exploring elementary economics in fun ways and sharpening your students' math skills. More information about these two new elementary curriculum pieces
is available on the National Council on Economic Education web
store. Stock Market Game Curricula enhances teachingTwo activity-based curricula are available to support teachers using The Stock Market Game ™ or other personal finance instruction. Math Behind the Market is a math resource designed for grades 4 and beyond. The lessons primarily consist of one-page student worksheets for independent or SMG team work. All lessons have an answer key and require one class period or less to implement with your students. Beyond the Market and Into the Classroom is broad-based, with lessons touching on many concepts within the financial markets. Lessons build on a theme and include answer guides, glossaries, and a variety of lesson formats from stories to math problems as well as ideas to extend each lesson. ICEE has an inventory of hard copies of both curriculum units.
Contact ICEE to learn how you
can obtain a print copy. Thinking EconomicsNCEE has acquired the exclusive licensing and distribution rights to Thinking Economics®, a comprehensive, innovative, and technology- based primary source high school economics curriculum. The materials are effective for a variety of high school classrooms and with a diversity of students and learning styles. NCEE has developed a new informational website for Thinking
Economics 3.0. You are invited to explore this site and
learn more about this exciting resource! Seas, Trees, and Economies…Coming to Chicagoland!ICEE has recently taken part in a national training workshop highlighting the Seas, Trees, and Economies (STE) curriculum and is orchestrating the delivery of teacher training workshops targeting Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. The STE curriculum is an innovative set of lessons for grades 3-6 that helps students understand the relationship between our natural environment and the economy. The lessons provide students with tools to recognize trade-offs and explain how we can make better choices regarding the use of natural resources and the disposal of wastes generated by production and consumption. The lessons cover fundamental economic concepts such as scarcity, resources, goods and services, opportunity cost, trade-offs, value, price, and incentives through simulations and hands-on activities. To read more about this curriculum piece, visit the publications
page of the Center
for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education at University
of Missouri St Louis. Updates concerning teacher workshops using
Seas, Trees, and Economies are forthcoming; email announcements
will be broadcast and updates posted in future articles of E-CONnections!
In the meantime, if you teach in grade 3-5, are interested in
bringing a new hands-on real live approach to your science curriculum,
and are interested in earning curriculum and professional development
for yourself or others in your district, please contact Nancy
Hanlon Harrison at ICEE today!
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