Resources

Themes for Principles of Microeconomics

Adding a cohesive topical theme to introductory economics classes

Paper(coming soon) with Erik Craft and Maia Linask:
This paper describes a new approach to increasing content relevance and student engagement in Principles of Microeconomics by organizing the class around a cohesive theme. While continuing to teach students standard introductory material, we use supplementary readings, assignments, and examples throughout the semester that are related to a specific topic. Themed sections for Principles of Microeconomics were piloted at University of Richmond in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 on the topics of crime, inequality, dating, and globalization. In this paper, we provide an overview of our approach, including the institutional environment in which it was implemented, examples of how we related the themes to economic principles, and instructor perceptions of the benefits and difficulties of themed classes. We also share results from a survey eliciting students’ perceptions of the themes.

CTREE 2023 Workshop: Adding a Theme to your Principles class

Theme examples:
Crime (taught by Melissa Spencer): Teaching Principles of Microeconomics with Crime Examples
Inequality and Economic Mobility (taught by Erik Craft): Inequality Econ 101 Syllabus
Dating, Marriage, and Sex (taught by Maia Linask)
Globalization (taught by Tom Zylkin)

Economics Writing Guide

A Brief Guide for Undergraduate Students

I created this writing guide for students in my Principles of Microeconomics class. This guide is designed to help students better understand what is expected for economics writing assignments and to help them improve their writing. I plan to update this guide in Spring 2022 with an annotated sample essay.

Click here to view resource.

Gender Economics Teaching Network

Co-organized with Barbara Boelmann (University of Cologne)

This network is designed to aid instructors in preparing and teaching gender economics courses in order to give students a more diverse and research-oriented learning experience. There are three components, all of which are voluntary for those wishing to participate:

  1. A Dropbox folder where instructors can share course materials, slides for research papers on gender topics, and book suggestions for gender economics courses.
  2. A Google Spreadsheet where instructors can request to be added to the email list for Zoom social hours, request to be added to the Dropbox folder, and indicate their willingness to swap lectures with other instructors.
  3. The occasional Zoom social hour to share thoughts, ideas, and tips for teaching Gender Economics.

Interested instructors can email to be added to the Network.