Are your students playing the Stock Market Game hosted by Economics Arkansas? Would learning more about our economy, making smart decisions, and growing your savings be of value to students of many ages? Sprinkle in a little relevant math practice and you’ve accomplished a lot. On my daily podcast listening, I recently learned of special topics podcast created by the Planet Money team called Summer School. My immediate connection to this season’s Summer School podcasts was its value to those teachers with students playing the Stock Market Game with Economics Arkansas. The knowledge is good for anyone, but especially beneficial for the SMG competition!
By listening to any of the Planet Money podcasts you will begin to see economics everywhere – the news, the supermarket, and even dating life. You’ll start to see the world through the lens of an economist and feel less overwhelmed when making decisions about scarce resources of time or money. The first Summer School program covered microeconomics but don’t let that scare you! Even elementary students can understand these fun real-world examples from their daily lives. Topics include scarcity, choices, markets, profit, trade, taxes, and advertising. In Season Two on investing you will learn about the stock market, index funds, investing strategies, bonds, bubbles and even crypto currencies. Are your students interested in crypto? Podcasts are filled with examples that are relevant to your students. They will not realize they are learning! There is a quiz at the end to assess their learning and a completion certificate to send home to parents. You could even challenge families to listen to these.
To support us of the Planet Money podcasts with educators, they include resources on specific economic topics with short stories, discussion themes, vocabulary, and listening questions. This example compares GDP to students GPA – a relevant comparison. A teacher’s guide includes knowledge activation, introduction, reflection and links to published resources used in the podcasts.
Planet Money and Summer School podcasts are produced by NPR productions. The Indicator from Planet Money provides a daily news update, again in an engaging format. Planet Money launched in 2008 during the financial crisis. It has won awards including a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Award. If you are not certain about using an audio only presentation, check out Listenwise, an award-winning listening skills platform that harnesses the power of listening to advance literacy and learning in all students. It keeps teaching connected to the real world and builds student listening skills at the same time.
- We believe in the importance of listening for student success.
- We believe in the power of a great story.
- We believe in literacy for all.
Please comment and share creative ways you found to use these resources. I would like to learn from you. 🙂
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