Travis R. Martin, CPA

Nearly all teens are into tunes (some so much that they stay tethered to their iPod 24/7). With this in mind, I like to work a few music-related activities into Computer Applications.

To break the monotony of typing out “www sss xxx ooo lll …” over and over, I like to incorporate Keyboarding Basketball, a simple game that gets the students out of their seats during timed typing exercises.

Flip to the front of nearly any high school Economics textbook and you are sure to find a discussion of Economic Systems and Economic Goals.

When my classes discuss these topics (see PowerPoint notes), I like to incorporate a few simple activities.

In this activity, students get hands-on with target markets by creating a fictional person that is representative of a given target market.

This hands-on marketing activity puts a fun spin on distribution channels by requiring students to move a product from point A to point B while navigating a classroom obstacle course.

Unless you are teaching an AP Economics class, you probably aren’t going to get a lot of students to read Adam Smith.

Thankfully, there are ways that you can introduce some of the important concepts from Classical Economics without going right to the source.

From an early age, we as consumers have been conditioned by the likes of Chef Boyardee and Chester Cheetah to reach for their products when grocery shopping. We assume that we choose name brands, like Cheetos, over their generic counterparts because the name brands are of higher quality. But is this always the case?

In this hands-on activity, students develop a new cereal concept for Kellogg’s. The activity starts with students reading a short case about Kellog’s slumping cereal sales (see link below). Then students divide up into groups and conduct market research using surveys or focus groups.

I am throwing the doors open to my archive. Every lesson/activity/unit that I use in class that works reasonably well (or has the potential to work well in the capable hands of someone else) will be posted on my website under the “lesson plans” link. And you can have them. All for the low price of free.

If the student-athletes at your school are playing in front of more empty seats than filled ones, maybe it is time to get creative.