Thanks to the generosity of the business, individuals and foundations that contribute to the Council, almost all teaching materials are available at no charge to Mississippi teachers.  Many require that a teacher attend a workshop to help them learn innovative ways to bring economic education into the classroom.  The vast majority of the Council’s workshops are also free, and the Mississippi Council pays stipends or substitute fees whenever possible, thanks again to our contributors.

Progress through programs:

The Center for Economic Education and Financial Literacy (CEEFL) at Mississippi State University and the Center for Economic Education at University of Southern Mississippi were affiliated with the MCEE to provide an academic resource for public and private schools, K-12.  The MCEE through the MSU and USM Centers teaches teachers economics and how to teach it to students.  It also makes available a wide array of classroom materials and innovative programs to bring “the dismal science” to life as real-world experience.

The following programs have been made available to teachers throughout the state:

“Economics for All Teachers” helps K-12 teacher to effectively teach economics to students across multiple grade levels and disciplines by using the Virtual Economics^TM CD-ROM

“Financial Fitness for Life” uses classroom skills like mathematics, language arts, and economics to introduce students to issues of personal finance.  The program's resources offer fun and insightful exercises that relate the principles of personal finance that are so important in day-to-day life. 

“Math and Economics: Connections for Life, Grades 9-12” was presented to secondary mathematics teachers at the recent Mississippi Council of Teachers of Mathematics Fall Conference to introduce them to the available curriculum and generate interest on strengthening high school students’ mathematics skills while instilling them with basic economic concepts.  

The Mississippi Council on Economic Education has secured rights and launched its sponsorship of The Mississippi Stock Market Game (SMG) for public and private school students throughout the state. The Mississippi SMG portfolio management program has been successfully offered throughout the state for several years and it continues to be a motivating approach to learning about the American economic system. Student teams invest a hypothetical $100,000 in stocks and compete for the best portfolio performance.  To date we have had approximately 3,743 teams, constituting over 18,666 students in grades 4 through 12 participating in the Simulation.  Training is also made available to teachers interested in having their students participate in the simulation.

“Learning from the Market” Over 300 teachers throughout the state have participated and learned how to play the game, how to use the curriculum materials that accompany the program and how to understand the economics of the securities markets.

“Monetary Policy in Today’s Economy” Teachers of social studies, mathematics, gifted studies, language arts, business and librarians were provided with a full-day of training and materials that they can use in the classroom on the economy and the Federal Reserve Banks.  Staff from both the St. Louis and Atlanta Federal Reserve Banks collaborated with the Center staff in this workshop.  This was the first time the Federal Reserve Banks offered their extensive materials in Mississippi.

“Capstone:  Exemplary Lesson for High School Economics”  Teachers of economics joined their peers for a full one-day session with follow-up via the Internet Fall 2004.  Participating teachers received the recently released 2003 edition of Capstone, a set of 45 exemplary lessons for high school economics teachers and their students.  Capstone contains a teacher’s guide and a thought-provoking student activities book; a complete set of economic terms; economic reasoning applied to a wide range of problem-solving issues and multiple choice and essay questions built into each lesson.

The 45 lessons covered a wide range of economic concepts including the economics of thinking, markets, supply and demand, personal finance, macroeconomics of government and the global economy to name a few.

 
What Teachers Say…

“I did the Virtual Economics workshop at Gulf Park.  That workshop was very good, but this one (Economics Education) was the best workshop I have attended.  Your choice of activities allowed the individuals’ knowledge base to expand.”

Pamela Carrubba

Gifted Studies teacher

Bay Waveland Middle School

Long Beach

“The Economics' workshop was exceptional with excellent presentations and activities.  These will be extremely useful in the classroom and student participation should be enhanced.”

Reuben R. Little

Social Studies Teacher

Bonita Educational Center

Meridian

Ten more weeks wouldn’t be long enough to describe the enthusiasm these students exhibited in the simulation experience.  The student’s interest was genuine and their rewards were intrinsic as they journeyed 10 weeks into the world of money, stock and risk taking.  My role as a teacher was to teach them a few concepts, then step back.”

Regina Thornton

5^th Grade Teacher

Philadelphia Elementary School

Philadelphia

“Economics seemed to promise a rather dry set of exercises, and graph interpretation, despite some occasional games about limited margins using candy bars.  I then proposed to the economics students that we enter the stock market game.  At first, looks were of some confusion and frustration as we had only a couple of weeks to understand the technical aspects of an interactive stock market game.  Each day, the status of the top 50 teams was posted in the senior high school corridor.  As time progressed, the entire student population became aware of the economic competition, and the players—everyone wanted in the game.”

Candace Gray

Eleventh Grade Teacher

John F. Kennedy Memorial High School

Mound Bayou