Workshops

Financial Fitness for Life! is a K-12 comprehensive financial literacy curriculum developed by the Council for Economic Education to educate students and their parents in the life skills necessary for the increasingly complex career and financial decisions they must make. Workshops are 6 hours, with 6 CPDUs.

Risky Business: What Every Teenager Needs to Know About Living Smart is a comprehensive life skills program on DVD which consists of four 15-20 minute videos, each with three corresponding lesson plans. decision-making can empower people and provide greater opportunities for success, fortune, freedom, and overall well-being. This comprehensive educational package includes videos that show students how making well-informed decisions can help young people build a financially successful and more satisfying life. Each video is complemented with standards-based classroom lesson plans that teachers, parents and mentors can use to reinforce the concepts demonstrated in the videos. Workshops are 3 hours, providing 3 CPDUs.

The Stock Market Game^TMprogram is an online education program used in thousands of classrooms nationwide to help teach math, social studies, business, economics and language skills while focusing on the importance of long-term savings and investment. In Illinois, the SMG program has engaged over 425,000 students since 1988. Students in grades 4-12 participate in teams and manage a simulated investment portfolio during ten to fifteen weeks of the school year. Teachers access grade- and subject-specific curriculum, lesson plans, newsletters and tutorials for classroom instruction. Teachers new to the SMG program should visit the SMG’s public website, for complete information on the program and to see a demonstration of how it works. Returning teachers should go directly to the Illinois information pages for complete information on the upcoming sessions, costs (or sponsorships) and teacher training opportunities. Teacher training workshops are scheduled in September/October and in January/February and are 3 hours, providing 3 CPDUs. The UIC-CEE also offers Taste of the Stock Market Game^TM workshops for 1-3 hours, with CPDUs earned according to workshop length.

Our increasingly interdependent world makes understanding globalization and the rest of the world more and more critical. Workshops on international topics include how to teach concepts like international trade, trade barriers, international organizations, globalization, exchange rates, foreign policy, and trade controversies with activity-based active-learning lessons. Workshops can be 1-6 hours, with CPDUs earned according to workshop length.

Problem-based learning involves and engages students by having them solve a realistic dilemma that allows for more than one possible solution, like much of life. Training workshops are 6 hours, 6 CPDUs.

The Ethical Foundations of Economics includes thought-provoking lesson plans such as, Should Corporations Be Ethical? Should Human Organs Be Sold in a Market? Who Should Have Access To Health Care? These provocative questions instill critical thinking skills, and asks students to explore and understand public-policy problems, social responsibility, and efficiency issues. It gives students the ability to deal with real-world problems.

Classic literature includes economic situations and dilemmas. From picture books to full-length novels, exploring the economics can enhance students’ reading and reinforce life skills. Workshops can be 1-6 hours, with CPDUs earned according to workshop length.

Economics applications can reinforce math skills grades 3-12. Topics include the geometry of making kites, exchange rates proportions, graphing deserted island survivors, calculating and comparing cell phone company offers, and many more. Workshops can be 1-6 hours, with CPDUs earned according to workshop length.