much or too little homework? What level of mastery
of the material will be necessary for a student to earn
an “A” fora course? From my perspective, the answer
to these questions ultimately comes down to “How do
I teach this course so that in my heart I will feel good
about it?” To me, losing touch with this question is
losing touch with my responsibility to my students.
What truly maintains and nourishes me is knowing
that ] am asking students to realize their true potential
and that I am doing everything I can to help them
succeed.

Lee Cartwright, Instructor, Business and Occupations

For further information, contact the author at Santa Fe
Community College, P.O. Box 4187, Santa Fe, NM 87502.

Practicing With the News

Students of economics find that applying course
content to real world experiences makes learning fun and
easv. One practical application strategy is having stu-
dents monitor the U.S. economy in order to predict
national economic trends. Students collect economic
news and associate the news with the principles being
discussed in class.

At the beginning of the quarter, | announce we are all
responsible for collecting daily news concerning the
health of the national economy. At first, students have
few ideas about what to collect. As the term progresses
and economic principles are introduced, the quality of the
selected news articles improves. In the beginning,
students record the news in a journal. Eventually, they
are taught elementary computer skills, and as the course
evolves they learn to use database software.

In economics, students learn how aggregate expendi-
tures explain recession or expansion of the economy.
They learn that expenditures are easier to understand
when they are partially disaggregated into four expendi-
ture groups—consumption, investment, government
purchases, and net exports. Each expenditure group may
be predicted by “spending determinants”—such items as
disposable personal income, interest rates, price levels,
business expectations, taxes, and others. A single spend-
ing determinant may be useful in predicting more than
one category.

A database is an excellent medium by which to
observe the economic relationships between spending

determinants and expenditure groups. In designing the
database, students learn economic principles. The news
gathered during the term is sorted by spending determi-
nants and eventually categorized to monitor the four
expenditure groups.

Students design a database that contains two tables of
information. First, each potential spending determinant
is cross-referenced to the four expenditure groups.
Second, a table of economic news is collected. In the latter
table, each news item is organized by row (i.e., record),
and each row includes unique identifiers (i.e., fields)
describing the news item. In a row, a single news item in
brief, is listed with its source and date. More important,
the row contains a spending determinant identifier and a
brief explanation of why the particular news item fits the
chosen spending determinant.

The second table of the database allows students to
systematically collect economic news and decide how the
news fits a particular spending determinant studied in
class. This is where the integration of knowledge and
skills begins. The task is accomplished by combining
both economic principles and computer skills. Students
gain an appreciation for the crossdisciplinary nature of
working in economics.

At this point, the full power of the database has yet to
be exploited. Economic news may affect more than one
expenditure group, but by design the structure of the
database recognizes these complex relationships. The
practical application is to extract meaningful economic
information related to each expenditure group. For
example, students query the database and print a report
displaying all economic news related to consumption.
This news might be sorted by spending determinant and
date, then used to help forecast short-term consumption
as it affects the entire economy.

By collecting the news and organizing it into logical
constructs, the class is able to use information more
efficiently. Computer skills are enhanced, and the
students gain an appreciation for the practical use of
economics and enjoy a fun project.

Thomas Cook, Instructor, Economics
For further information, contact the author at North

Seattle Community College, 9600 College Way North,
Seattle, WA 98103.

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor

February 4, 1994, Vol. XVI, No. 3

©The University of Texas at Austin, 1994
Further duphcation is permitted by MEMBER
insttutons for ther own personnel

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS ts a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD),
Department of Educational Administraton, Collage of Education, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
78712, (512) 471-7545. Funding in part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly
when classes are in session during fall and spring terms. ISSN 0199-106X.