Abacus: Small Enough to Jail is a documentary about the little-known story of the only U.S. bank prosecuted after the financial crisis. Director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters) chronicles the Chinese immigrant Sung family’s fight to clear their names. Check local listings for time of broadcast, and read more at ww.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/abacus

“The House on Elm Street” is an exercise developed by Professor George J. Siedel with support from the University of Michigan.  It involves a transaction that students can easily relate to:  the sale of a house.  The twist in the exercise is that, unknown to the seller, the buyer is a secret agent representing a large company.  Each student receives a short (two-page) role as either the buyer or seller, and they negotiate for 30 minutes, followed by a debriefing.  The exercise is designed to achieve several learning goals.  For example, students will learn how to: 1.       understand…

The New York Fed’s Educational Comic Book Series teaches students about basic economic principles and the Federal Reserve’s role in the economic system. Created for educators and students at the middle school, high school, and introductory college levels, the series can help promote economic literacy. The comic books are free, available as download, or as printed classroom sets that are mailed to you. Lesson plans and associated material are also available to help incorporate the content into the classroom. See the series at https://www.newyorkfed.org/outreach-and-education/comic-books…

Fair Trade Campaigns has developed a series of lesson plans to help educators bring the concept of Fair Trade into their middle and high school classrooms. There are four distinct lessons, covering four subject areas in relation to Fair Trade:- Changing the Rules of the Global Economy: An Introduction to Fair Trade - Gender Equity and Fair Trade - Child Labor and Fair Trade - Environmental Sustainability and Fair Trade Each lesson includes several activities, which can be completed individually or as a full, sequential lesson. The lessons come with an accompanying Educator’s Guide which…

Confronting Poverty (confrontingpoverty.org) is a new website that offers a set of resources dealing with American poverty and inequality. Most notable is an interactive "poverty risk calculator" that estimates for the first time the likelihood that an individual will experience poverty at some point in their future. The idea is similar to the heart disease risk calculators that you can find on the Internet. In this case, the data is based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (psidonline.isr.umich.edu). But do probabilities dictate a person's fate? That's a compelling question that we…

Elementary and middle school teachers will want to know that The U.S. Mint has announced the release of the 2017 Frederick Douglass National Historic Site quarter, the 37th coin to be released in the "America the Beautiful" Quarters Program. For more information on Frederick Douglass, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site and the Frederick Douglass NHS Quarter, visit: https://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/atb/index5965.html?local=FrederickDouglass. And remember that the U.S. Mint has a collection of K-12 lesson plans relating to geography, economics, history, and civics athttps://www.…

High school ethnic studies courses that address the perspectives and experiences of people of color are increasingly in demand. The author describes the thematic, inquiry-based approach she developed that reflects her school’s diversity.

Exploring cryptocurrencies with students is an excellent way to increase their knowledge of basic economic concepts.

Four bedrock personal finance principles can help teachers ride out uncertain economic times and assist them in teaching students about making economic decisions.

This discussion-based lesson plan invites students to explore how personal economic decisions affect them in the short and long term.