Elementary Teachers Now Have Fun and Easy Way to Integrate Mathematics and Economics into Curriculum

Active-learning lesson plans mean teachers no longer have to answer the proverbial question: "Why do I have to learn this stuff?"

New York, NY (PRWEB) January 9, 2006 -- The National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) announced today that it has published 'Mathematics and Economics: Connections for Life, Grades 3-5', adding an elementary school publication to the popular 'Mathematics and Economics' series for middle and high school teachers (http://mathandecon.ncee.net/35).

Elementary teachers can use 'Mathematics and Economics: Grades 3-5' to explore new, active-learning ways to infuse both economics and mathematics into their classroom. The 12 activity-based lessons help teachers build a solid foundation for future learning in both mathematics and economics.

"With the recent urgency for results-oriented mathematics education in the curriculum, it’s important for elementary teachers to have lesson plans that bring math concepts to life," said Robert Duvall, President and CEO of NCEE. "With its quantitative applications and focus on everyday life skills, economics is the perfect vehicle to build and reinforce math skills."

Each lesson plan uses hands-on activities to give students an applied understanding of economics. With step-by-step procedures, visuals and reproducible activity worksheets, teachers lead the students through the core concepts, and then assign activities to groups of students.

Activities include making brownies, flying kites and planning a classroom pizza party. The lessons also help build communication and teamwork skills, among others. Each lesson is correlated to National Content Standards in both Economics and Mathematics.

"This is a great way for students to apply both mathematical and thinking skills to the economic and personal finance challenges they will encounter throughout their lives," added Duvall.

Teachers do not need to have taken an economics course to teach the lessons. In addition to its straightforward lesson plans, 'Mathematics and Economics: Grades 3-5' is supported by an extensive workshop program through the NCEE’s network of affiliated state councils and over 200 centers for economic education. Furthermore, each lesson was written by master teachers with input from experts in both mathematics and economics education.

'Mathematics and Economics: Connections for Life, Grades 3-5', was underwritten through funding from the 3M Foundation.

More information on Mathematics and Economics is available at http://mathandecon.ncee.net/35.

About the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)
The NCEE (www.ncee.net) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving economic literacy. Through its unique nationwide network of state Councils and more than 200 university based Centers for Economic Education, NCEE’s programs reach more than 150,000 K-12 teachers and over 15 million students in more than 70,000 schools each year.

About the Mathematics and Economics series
To learn more about 'Mathematics and Economics', visit http://mathandecon.ncee.net/35. To place an order, visit http://store.ncee.net/mathandecon35.html

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