Arkansas Centered Back to School Resources
Arkansas teachers and students are headed back to the classroom! The next few weeks will be spent getting readjusted to being in a classroom environment, relationship building, setting learning goals, and introducing new topics and ideas.
Educators looking for resources for teaching economics, personal finance, family & consumer science, entrepreneurship and more have a wealth of resources they can use to introduce new topics and meet the needs of diverse groups of learners through a variety of hands-on and interactive games and activities.
Photo by Max Fischer from Pexels
Arkansas Tailored Personal Finance Curriculum
Last year, Dr. Michael Casey, Professor of Finance at the University of Central Arkansas, partnered with the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics to begin developing a state-focused curriculum guide for teaching Arkansas's personal finance standards. These curriculums include lesson plans, hands-on activities, discussion prompts, videos, primary source activities, and more! Educators can request content virtually or by mail, or attend an upcoming professional development training on a personal finance topic.
Econ Ed at the St. Louis Fed
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has more than organized lesson plans for teachers. Using their interactive data sets, students can explore a variety of topics using real world data that is updated regularly! Sign up for their email newsletter to receive resources regularly in your inbox. Creating an account on the Econ Lowdown portal gets you access to even more, like a podcast series and discussion resource guide created in partnership with Planet Money! These resources have been designed with educators in mind, and resource and content training is available to educators around the state.
Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters Program & $10 Challenge Lesson Plan
This $10 Challenge universal lesson plan is adapted from Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters program and supported by the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas in partnership with Economics Arkansas. During this interactive lesson, students explore their local grocery stores and learn about healthy eating, the cost of items and meals, and how to create a budget for meal planning. Using this knowledge, students then work to to plan a healthful meal for 4 for under $10! This learning experience is open to Arkansas students of all ages and is a great field trip opportunity. Contact Nutrition Director Samantha Stadter at sstadter@arhungeralliance.org or 501-399-9999 to learn more!
Photo by Katerina Holmes from Pexels
The Stock Market Game with Economics Arkansas
Every Year, Economics Arkansas brings Arkansas students the Stock Market Game, a national program of the SIFMA Foundation that allows students and teachers the opportunity to invest a virtual $100,000 in stocks, bonds and mutual funds throughout the course of their semester or year.
The dates for the 2021-2022 Stock Market Game program are:
Fall 2021: September 7- December 3, 2021
Spring 2022: January 10 - April 8, 2022
Year-long: Sept.7,2021 - April 15, 2022
Teachers interesting in playing the Stock Market Game can sign up for one of the two upcoming informational webinars for the program! This virtual professional development opportunity is designed to share an overview of the simulation, provide some quick tips to get started and share some wonderful funding opportunities to participate! Participants will be able to view the simulation from both the student and teacher perspective.
Wrapping Up
There are so many individuals working around our state to improve educational outcomes in Arkansas. Using these resources, students will be introduced to new topics and ideas in a variety of engaging ways! Sign up for an upcoming professional development training, download or request reources and activities for the classroom, or get your students involved in an engaging competition today!
