Economic Principles, 7th-12th, 2024-2025 Academic Year, Instructor J. Bell, Tuesdays, 8:45am CST

Economic Principles: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (grades 7-12, no previous experience necessary)

Tuesdays, 8:45-9:25am CST

1st semester: September 10th-December 10th

2nd semester: January 7th-April 8th

Required text: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

Optional text: A Bluestocking Guide: Economics

After purchasing this class, you will receive downloadable instructions via email.

Mister Jesse loves learning about economics. In fact, he has always loved it, but he has attended some pretty boring classes in his time. He doesn't like boring classes, so he aims to make his lessons engaging and fill his students' minds with underlying economic principles that they will carry with them throughout life.

Through live discussion and hands-on critical thinking, attendees will gain knowledge and insight that won't fade from memory as soon as classes end. In fact, his classes don't require any rote memorization but instead prioritize understanding "why?"

Join with Mister Jesse as he leads his class along a historical adventure, all the while analyzing the actions and motivations that have affected the US economy over time. When students graduate from this course, they'll be informed citizens, and they'll have learned and practiced critical thinking skills over a series of 28 weeks.

Every single class will involve discussion of the source text and/or comprehension questions that correlate to each chapter. Mister Jesse's role will be to help students understand concepts, recognize biases, analyze past events, and discuss economic principles. His goal is to engage every student in an effort to foster growth, confidence, and retention.

Mister Jesse will advance at the pace of the students, taking longer with some assignments if necessary. The result is that some groups of students may not entirely finish the book. The ultimate goal is retention and understanding of presented concepts, not 100% completion of the course.

Over twenty-eight weeks, there will be fourteen 2-week cycles.

First class of each cycle:

During class: read and discuss the new source text as a class with a heavy focus on understanding terms, events, cause & effect, etc. Students will ask questions, note interesting details, and engage in discussion. Homework: read over the chapter one more time. Optional: discuss with parents and answer comprehension questions ahead of next week's class (if you have purchased A Bluestocking Guide: Economics).

Second class of each cycle:

During class: read and discuss the comprehension questions for the previous week's source text, emphasizing student independence of research and thought process. Homework: Read next week's new chapter ahead of class, noting questions and interesting details. Optional: Discuss and study answers to comprehension questions. Parents may administer quiz over the comprehension questions if they have purchased the optional text (A Bluestocking Guide: Economics).

Online classes meet via Zoom.

If a student is unable to complete the class for some reason, they will still have access to the weekly videos. :)