Economics Instructor Kyle Montanio is announcing two exciting opportunities open to all CLAS students. The first is a competition asking students to present economics concepts in the form of a short story: complete with plot, characters, and conflict. The goal is to use storytelling to help teach economics and to generate valuable teaching materials that economics faculty can use to supplement or replace traditional textbooks. The competition hopes to tap into students’ broad and varied interests to generate learning material that resonates with all our diverse student body. All genres of fiction and non-fiction stories are encouraged and will receive equal consideration. Submissions must include three sections: a short story, definition of economics concepts and terminology, and at least 2 discussion questions. Prizes will be determined by volunteer judges from the economics department faculty, based on how clearly economic concepts are presented and how engaging the story is. The winning submission will receive $500, while 2nd and 3rd place submissions will receive $250 each.

The second project offers students a chance to sign up for an 3-credit independent study that will get them in on the ground floor of creating a more engaging version of an economics "textbook" - one that presents material in a fun and engaging way. Students will help build a free learning resource that can inspire everyone to learn economics, either in the classroom or on their own. Ultimately this project could produce a website that provides the free textbook, video lectures, and gathers data about student performance on practice problems and survey questions. Student participants will be involved in devising and improving the materials, and will play an active role in creating teaching tools. This independent study project will provide useful experiences and practical skills to help students achieve goals while generating real-world value.

Montanio is happy to chat about and discuss project ideas before the official submission deadline of January 22, 2022. All submissions and questions should be emailed to kyle.montanio@ucdenver.edu.