Combining Fun and Learning in Principles of Economics Courses

This paper describes a game used in Principles of Economics classes to increase student interest, participation and learning. The game is similar to the Jeopardy television show. Six classes of principles of microeconomics and principles of macroeconomics played the game during two semesters. I announced the dates of game playing in advance. I changed the rules of the game between the two semesters to reflect the student comments from the first semester. A maximum of ten students played in a given time period. I asked the rest to answer the question if players/contestants could not. Like Jeopardy, the players chose the textbook chapters from which questions were drawn. Students participated by contributing questions, playing, making questions that nobody could answer, and answering the questions that the players could not answer. Rewards took the form of grades, extra-credit points, and cookies. The paper describes the game, presents results, highlights some students' feedback, and compares test performance of classes that used the game to a class that did not.

The Heckscher-Ohlin Model with variable input coefficients in spreadsheets

This paper describes the presentation of the Heckscher-Ohlin model of international trade using an Excel workbook. The model consists of a two-factor economy producing two goods. The production of each is represented by a Cobb-Douglas production function. Given the fixed supplies of the two resources, labour and land, the model demonstrates how competitive markets allocate the resources between two competing uses, cloth production and food production. Presenting this model with Excel allows instructors to illustrate production functions, the derivation of the production possibilities frontier, and the effect of prices on resource allocation, inter alia. It also allows the illustration of the effects of changes in technology, factor supplies, or product prices on economic outcomes. Perhaps more importantly, the use of Excel allows students access to a "live" study guide, within which they can replicate and extend analysis presented by the instructor. This provides a deeper understanding of the theory. At the same time, the students are becoming more familiar with the use of spreadsheets, developing a skill that will serve them well throughout their lives.