THE TEACHING ECONOMIST - William A. McEachern 
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Issue 13, Spring 1997
William A. McEachern, Editor
Grapevine
The Teaching Economist is now in its seventh year. During that time, "The Grapevine" has published nearly one hundred teaching ideas from colleagues around the country. Here, listed alphabetically by author, are my choices for the best grapevine ideas published since 1990.
- Burton Abrams
of the University of Delaware says that his favorite illustration of the law of demand in science fiction comes from one of the original Star Trek shows. The crew of the Enterprise happen upon a planet that is waging war against another planet using a computer, which estimates the impact of simulated attacks then projects the number of casualties. Citizens selected as victims dutifully go to vaporization chambers. Because no actual weapons are used, no capital is destroyed, greatly reducing the cost of a war that has been underway for decades. Captain Kirk, appalled by the antiseptic nature of the process, essentially pulls the plug on the computer. This causes a treaty violation and forces the two plantets to confront the implications of waging a real war. The suddenly higher cost of war forces both sides into peace negotiations. Professor Abrams raises two follow-on questions. Did the existence of nuclear weapons prevent the United States and the Soviet Union from going to war during the Cold War? And would the existence of a neutron bomb make the use of nuclear weapons more likely? All this reminds me of the movie War Games, where, in the end, the computer "realized" that the only way to win the "game" of "Thermonuclear War" is not to play.
- Paul C. Clement of Nassau Community College on Long Island tells the following story to distinguish between rational expectations and adaptive expectations. "One summer while visiting the Bronx Zoo, I witnessed a five year old pushing his finger inside the monkey's cage. About the fifth time, the monkey bit his finger. He pushed it in again and was bitten once again. The third time his finger started to bleed and he ran crying to his mother." According to adaptive expectations, the reaction to changes in economic policy is similar to that of the five year old -- that is, people continue to make decisions as before until they have sufficient proof that the change is permanent. Rational expectations argues that intelligent people might be fooled once but are not likely to repeat mistakes. As soon as a new tax bill becomes a certainty, people adjust accordingly.
- Brad Hobbs of Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky, thinks that student interest is stimulated by examples that are eccentric, weird, or even a little outrageous. For example, he introduces a firm called "Brad's Road-Side Road Kill," a seller of possum stew. Brad uses this firm to demonstrate a variety of economic principles including supply and demand, diminishing returns, monopoly, and product differentiation.
- The day that Ivan Kelly of Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, presents the equation of exchange, MV = PQ, he brings to class a relatively inexpensive item that students value, such as a popular music CD, and tells students he is going to auction it off. For money, he uses a bag of individually wrapped candies. He tears open the bag and throws the candy all over the room. Students pick it up and the bidding begins. Once a price is established, he stops the auction, opens a second bag of candy, and again throws the contents around the room. He then reopens the bidding. As we might expect, the second price of the CD is higher than the first. He then asks students what in the equation of exchange has changed. V? No. Q? No, there is still just the one CD. M? Yes. P? Yes. He is thus able to trace the change in P to a change in M. This is a great way to sensationalize the topic.
- Stuart Lynn of Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, provides his principles students with a handout he has prepared entitled "How to Study Economics." In it, he advises students to read the material before class, review it right after class, practice using the terms and concepts, form study groups to explain terms and concepts to one another, look for everyday applications, and keep asking questions until mastery is achieved.
- Ted Scheinman of Mount Hood Commiunity College in Gresham, Oregon, teaches economics as a way of solving mysteries in the real world. Students are given a business card containing the following "Handy Dandy Clues to Economic Comprehension:" people economize; all choices involve costs; people respond to incentives; economic systems influence individual choices and incentives; voluntary trade creates wealth; and the consequences of choices lie in the future. Relying on articles from The Wall Street Journal, students learn first how to state economic mysteries and then how to solve them.
- Robert Withington, Jr., of the State University of New York, Plattsburg, believes that sudents will take the syllabus seriously only if the instructor takes it seriously. Thus, he takes great care in preparing the syllabus, which he views as a legal contract. (Incidentally, I know of an economics department where each syllabus is reviewed by a lawyer. In this litigious age, instructors stray from the terms of the syllabus at their own peril.)
- Art Welch of Penn State in University Park has compiled a short but helpful list of lecture tips. Plan you examples in advance. Get to class early. Begin your presentation with an outline and link old material to new material. Be obvious about your organizing plan and your main points. Maintain eye contact with the class. Use concrete examples and a variety of them. Organize your board work from left to right. Write clearly and large enough for all to see. Don't assume that all students are like you when you were an undergraduate. Remember the limited capacity of the mind. Never bluff an answer or embarass a student. Remember the importance of motivation: be enthusiastic. And don't be too quick to answer your own questions -- remember that silence is golden.