New Lesson Plans Prepare Young Students to Address Energy and Environment Challenges of Tomorrow

Students Apply Economic Reasoning to Tackle Hot-button Issues with 'Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Case Studies and Teaching Activities for Elementary School' Publication

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 19, 2007 -- The National Council on Economic Education (NCEE, www.ncee.net) announced today a new publication, 'Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Case Studies and Teaching Activities for Elementary School' (http://store.ncee.net/energyeconomicsenvironment-elementary.html).

Designed to give young students a foundation in energy and environmental education, 'Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Elementary School' contains four units that give teachers the tools and resources to implement an environmentally-focused curriculum.

Teachers begin each unit with background content that introduces students to the basic issues surrounding the use of natural resources; they then use active-learning lesson plans and activities to put the principles into practice; and finish with a Capstone case study that challenges students to apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios and helps teachers evaluate student outcomes.

Throughout the program, students develop an understanding of environmental and energy issues and use economic reasoning to search for unique solutions.

"Students often fail to realize that economics decision-making plays a key role in environmental and energy choices," said Robert Duvall, NCEE's president and CEO. "Thus, it is important to instill the ability to critically analyze environmental and energy issues at an early age, so that young students understand how to better manage their resources and make wise choices as they move toward adulthood."

To help teachers effectively introduce these units, 'Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Elementary School' includes an introductory essay that provides teachers with a guide to analyzing key energy, economic and environmental issues.

Special features in 'Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Elementary School' include material from other NCEE publications, so that teachers can integrate more content into their classrooms. Teachers can use lessons from the recently revised 'Play Dough Economics' curriculum; introduce decision models like the Decision Tree used with the 'Econ and Me' video series; and utilize the popular Five-Step PACED Decision-Making Model.

Each of the lessons is correlated to the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics, covering key concepts like scarcity, marginal cost and benefits.

About 'Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Case Studies and Teaching Activities for Elementary School'
To learn more or to place an order, visit http://store.ncee.net/energyeconomicsenvironment-elementary.html

About the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)
The NCEE (www.ncee.net) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving economic, financial and entrepreneurship literacy. Both directly and 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.

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