For my choice of social studies blog, podcast, or wiki, I found the blog of my personal favorite work of Economics, the Freakonomics blog, written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, and maintained by the New York Times online opinion section at http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/ .
Freakonomics was an instant classic for me after I read it because it exemplified the reasons I was interested in economics: it was curious, it was interesting, and it was personally relevant. And when Economist Steven Levitt admitted, “I just don’t know very much about the field of economics. I’m not good at math. I don’t know a lot of econometrics, and I also don’t know how to do theory,” it rang true.
(Note: When you don’t really know economics, having a bachelor’s in Economics leads people to ask a lot of questions you won’t know the answer to. So I don’t know what’s wrong with the economy, although I think something bad happened because people invested in houses with money they didn’t have because they all assumed house prices would never go down. And once everyone realized they had assumed that, the market collapsed because they were all speculators ((like the ones in 1929)).)
The realistic, interesting examples written about in the book and blog title Freakonomics made me interested in how economics could explain the decisions people make. The Blog features posts about car prices vs. house prices in Detroit, the selling value of burial plots, and the right amount of ice for 7-11 drinks. Any single one of these can make an interesting discussion topic in class when tied into an appropriate lesson. Not only that, but these posts are about issues that could be relevant to students. Not only that, I can already imagine ways to incorporate chapters from the book Freakonomics into lesson plans for high school economics classes.
When a particular approach to economic thinking can be more personally relevant to students (and their teacher) I think meaningful learning, learning attached to previous knowledge and interest of the students can best occur.
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I really enjoyed the book as well, it made economics much more interesting for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link1
I loved this blog. Economics has always been something I slightly understood, but nothing I felt a real desire in following. Freakonomics puts an appealing and almost entertaining spin on it. I think this site would be a fantastic tool for getting students interested in economics!
ReplyDeleteI have always despised Economics, when I had to take it high school and again when I had to take it here at UF. Half the time I had no idea what I was doing and it took every ounce of effort in me to concentrate on what was happening. I did what ever I needed to do in order to pass, and this did not necessarily mean I had any understanding of the material. I like that you want to relate the subject to students lives and show them that it is something worth knowing. "This is how it will apply to your daily lives, etc." When as teachers we are able to relate the subject, especially one a lot of people may not like or understand, it raises the level of awareness and meaningful learning does occur. Great choice.
ReplyDeleteI understand the idea about not liking Economics. I really don't care that much for Macroeconomics myself. How the Federal Reserve works and how money is infused into an economy and all that just never excited me. But Freakonomics was right up my alley, and is a great example of something I wish I could do one day.
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