About the Workshop

The Gus A. Stavros Centers for Economic Education of Florida State University and the University of South Florida invite you to participate in the sixth annual workshop on the teaching of introductory economics at the college and high school levels. This extraordinary workshop will feature several outstanding educators including Robert Higgs, economic historian and editor of The Independent Review; Mark Schug, long-time director of the Center for Economic Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Michael Chriszt, assistant vice president for research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. This year, the Friday workshop will be preceded by a Thursday event “Evening with the Fed.” The conference registration fee of $60 includes the Thursday evening dinner and program, Friday lunch, and refreshment breaks. Register early to assure a spot.

Registration

If you are either a high school teacher or can only join us for the Thursday evening dinner and program, please contact Harriet Crawford directly at either (850) 644-4772 or hcrawford@fsu.edu. Otherwise, please register online here.

Hotel Info

If you need hotel accommodations, we recommend Residence Inn by Marriott - Tallahassee Universities at the Capitol, 600 W. Gaines St., Tallahassee, FL. 32304-4308, (850) 329-9080. Reservations can be made by calling 1 (800) 331-3131. You must make your reservations by January 5, 2010 to receive the Stavros Center conference rate ($93).

Additional Information

If you would like additional information, contact Joe Calhoun (Phone: 850-644-7723; jcalhoun@fsu.edu).

Workshop Schedule

Thursday, February 4 – 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Evening with the Fed (dinner and presentation), Michael Criszt, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: “Working in America: Labor Markets and Today’s Economy”

Friday, February 5

Morning – 9:00 am - 12:10 pm

Session 1

• Mark Schug: “Using Mysteries to Enhance Your Teaching of Economics”

Session 2

• Joe Calhoun and KimMarie McGoldrick: “Starting Point- Economics Pedagogic Portal, a new online facility for economics teaching ideas and examples”
• Tawni Ferrarini: “Making Economics Cool in School with Technology”

Lunch – 12:10 pm - 1:10 pm

Afternoon – 1:10 pm - 4:30 pm

Session 3

• Robert Higgs: "What Really Happened During the Great Depression?”

Session 4

• James Gwartney and David Macpherson “The Parallels Between the Japanese Economic Crisis of the 1990s and the US Today”

About the Session Leaders

MICHAEL CHRISZT is an assistant vice president in the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s research department. He is responsible for the Regional Economic Information Network (REIN) that supports the bank’s monetary policy role. Previously he was the director of international and regional analysis. His research interests include international economic policy, the European Monetary Union, and the overseas impact of U.S. monetary policy. He received a master’s degree in political science, with emphases on international economics and comparative politics, and bachelor’s degrees in history and in diplomacy and foreign affairs from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He also received a certificate of study in the European Union. He is a graduate of executive education programs at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Chriszt is a member of the National Association of Business Economists and chair of the group’s Regional Economics Roundtable.

ROBERT HIGGS is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor of the Institute's quarterly journal The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics in Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University. Higgs is the author of eight books, including Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government (1987), Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society (2004), Depression, War, and Cold War: Studies in Political Economy (2006), and Neither Liberty nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government (2007). One of the nation’s most highly respected economic historians, Professor Higgs is the author of more than 100 articles and reviews in academic journals. His popular writings have appeared in leading newspapers and magazines. And he has given more than 100 lectures on college campuses. He is a leading scholar with an uncanny ability to communicate in an understandable manner with a wide range of audiences.

MARK SCHUG is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where, for over a decade, he was Director of the UW-Milwaukee Center for Economic Education. He taught for over 36 years at the middle school, high school and university levels. He served three years as Senior Fellow with the Council on Economic Education. Today, he works fulltime as a national consultant on economic and financial education and urban education policy. He has written and edited over 200 publications including more than 110 articles in academic journals. He has authored over a dozen curriculum publications for the Council on Economic Education and co- edited six special issues of Social Education, the flagship journal of the National Council for the Social Studies with a readership of 25,000 teachers. He is currently involved in the conduct of online economics seminars for Washington D.C. legislative staff and is editing a book for Routledge Press for new economics teachers. Widely respected as one of the nation’s leading authorities on both economic education and financial literacy, Professor Schug has received numerous awards, including the Henry Villard Research Award from the National Council on Economic Education in 2007. Somehow, he still finds time to enjoy both the lakes of northern Wisconsin and the sunshine of south Florida.

TAWNI HUNT FERRARINI is the Sam M. Cohodas Professor of Economics and the Director of the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship at Northern Michigan University. She is the 2009 Michigan Economic Educator of the Year and an NMU Distinguished Faculty. Her work for the Council on Economic Education and reputation as a workshop leader on both the use of technology in the classroom and the integration of economics and American history helped her earn both awards. She teaches several online courses each year and employs technology tools to structure successful online courses and workshops in economic education. Dr. Ferrarini directs and maintains the economic education website, CommonSenseEconomics.com and contributes regularly to Econ4u.org. She earned her doctorate in economics from Washington University, where she studied under the 1993 Nobel laureate Douglass C. North.

KIMMARIE MCGOLDRICK has (co-)organized eleven one- and two-day economics education workshops since 1996. Her most recent efforts contribute to the NSF-funded Teaching Innovations Program, in which she serves as workshop coordinator and leader, directs the cooperative learning module (its development and the review of participant submitted materials), promotes the scholarship of teaching and learning by coordinating presentations by TIP participants at national and regional meetings, and reviews all applications. Her research spans a wide range of education topics including service-learning, undergraduate research, cooperative learning, and liberal education skills as applied in economics. Her work appears in leading education journals including the Journal of Economic Education. In recognition of her research and service, she was invited to serve on the American Economic Association’s Committee on Economic Education. McGoldrick has also served on the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession and as Co-PI on an NSF ADVANCE grant supporting women’s advancement in the field. As part of this project, she developed and facilitated five mentoring workshops targeted at helping women at institutions with equal emphasis on teaching and research achieve tenure.

JOE CALHOUN is the Assistant Director of the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University. He currently teaches large principles of economics classes with an annual enrollment of nearly 3,000 students. Dr. Calhoun has received numerous teaching awards including the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award at the University of Georgia, the Undergraduate Teaching Award at FSU, and four times received the Service Excellence Award for Teaching from Phi Eta Sigma at FSU. In 2008, he won first place in the Economics Communicators Contest cosponsored by the Association of Private Enterprise Education and the Market Based Management Institute. His doctoral degree is from the University of Georgia.

JAMES GWARTNEY holds the Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University, where he directs the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education. He is the coauthor of Economics: Private and Public Choice, (South- Western/Cengage Learning), a widely used principles of economics text that is now in its 13th edition. He is also co-author of an economics primer, Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity (St. Martin’s Press, 2005) and Economic Freedom of the World, an annual report that provides data on the institutions and policies of 141 countries. He served as Chief Economist of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress during 1999-2000. He is a past president of the Southern Economic Association and the Association for Free Enterprise Education. His Ph.D. in economics is from the University of Washington.

DAVID MACPHERSON is the E.M. Stevens Distinguished Professor of Economics at Trinity University. Previously, he was Director of the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy and the Rod and Hope Brim Eminent Scholar of Economics at Florida State University, where he has received two university-wide awards for teaching excellence. Professor Macpherson is the author of many articles in leading labor economics and industrial relations journals, including the Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, and Industrial and Labor Relations Review. He is also coauthor of Contemporary Labor Economics, 9th edition and Economics: Private and Public Choice, 13th edition. In addition, he is co-author of the annual Union Membership and Earnings Data Book: Compilations from the Current Population Survey. His specialty is applied labor economics. His current research interests include pensions, discrimination, labor unions, and the minimum wage. He received his undergraduate degree and Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University.