How to Make Economics Come Alive for Students On a sunny April
afternoon, students in associate professor William Kolberg’s
Environmental Economics class were not sitting captive in their
seats, staring at graphs, and listening to the drone of a
professorial lecture. Instead, they were standing up, haggling
and negotiating with each other in the center of the room,
trying to close a deal. Once the deal was made, they headed to
the front of the room where Kolberg waited to record the results
of their negotiations in a growing list of numbers on the
blackboard. The students repeated this scenario three or four
times throughout the class period, generating excitement and
data simultaneously. What was going on? Were these students
studying economics or playing a game? The answer, according to
Kolberg, is both -- this kind of “classroom experiment” is
designed not only to engage students but also to impart a deeper
understanding of important economic concepts. Kolberg notes that
“so much information has been accum