Use the Internet to Find Current Data

1. Meet FRED at: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred/

• FRED is the St. Louis Fed's economic data source

2. The Economy at a Glance: http://stats.bls.gov/eag/eag.us.htm

• Maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor

3. FedStats: http://www.fedstats.gov/

• Links to statistics from over 100 federal agencies
• Economic data in the FedStats collection: http://www.fedstats.gov/programs/economic.html
• Check out Census and Trade data at: http://www.census.gov/population/www/index.html
  • Click the link to the population clock
  • Try the national debt clock at: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
  • and another at http://www.toptips.com/debtclock.html

4. Currency converter: http://money.cnn.com/markets/currencies/

• link in upper right corner provides latest economic indicators

5. Standard of Living and Quality of Life data:

• United Nations' Statistical Division: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/default.htm
• United Nations CyberSchoolBus: http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/infonation/index.asp
  • Country At A Glance - a very student friendly, searchable database
• United Nations CyberSchoolBus InfoNation: http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation/e_infonation.htm

• The World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/databytopic.html

• The CIA World FactBook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
  • check links on site, updated yearly

   

Teach Students to Evaluate Web sites and materials—BEFORE you turn them loose to surf:

6. Evaluating websites for educational uses:

• Bibliography and Checklist: http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-49.html
  • Scroll down past the links to a series of questions to guide students in evaluating web sites
• Discovery School's links to website evaluation tools for students and teachers
  • http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html
• Wolfgram Memorial Library at Widener University web evaluation checklists
  • http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm

Web-based Teaching Materials:

7. FTE

• "Using the Internet to Teach Economics:" http://www.fte.org/teachers/connect/weblessons.htm
• Hot Topics: http://www.fte.org/teachers/hottopics/hottopics.htm

8. Federal Reserve Banks' education departments' resources:

• Linked portal to education materials from various Fed banks: http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/
• Interactive history and overview - Fed 101: http://www.kc.frb.org/fed101/ (Kansas City Fed)
• Minneapolis Fed materials on money and banking:
  • "Our Money" and "What is a Dollar Worth?" at http://minneapolisfed.org/econed/
  • Personal finance and banking materials: http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/fined/
• FOMC Simulation on monetary policy http://www.newyorkfed.org/pihome/Educator/fomcsim.html?expand=4

9. The National Council on Economic Education:

• EconEdLink: http://www.econedlink.org/
• DataLinks: http://www.econedlink.org/datalinks/index.cfm
• Economics Minute: http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?LessonTypeID=1
• Milliionaire Minute: http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?LessonTypeID=2
• NetNewsLine: http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?LessonTypeID=3

10. Thinking Economics

• This web-site offers supplemental materials to the complementary Thinking Economics CDs provided for EFL teacher participants. Several chapters of the Thinking Economics CD set serve as the main reference "text" for FTE's High School Economics Online (HSEO) course, taught each year during fall semester.

11. Iowa Electronic Markets: http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem/

• This research project of the University of Iowa lets you participate - with real money - in a futures market for current events outcomes (like the 2004 election). There is a classroom market section (you can enter with $5) with markets for such things as new movie releases.

12. The McGraw-Hill economics graph maker: http://www.mhhe.com/economics/econgk.mhtml

• A great econ "toy." Students can make graphs online and email their homework to you.
• National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) graph maker: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/line.asp

13. Games Economists Play - Non-Computerized Classroom Games:

• http://mcnet.marietta.edu/~delemeeg/games/

14. FTE's Online Courses (for teachers and for high school students)

• http://blackboard.jeffco.k12.co.us/: To log in to this site as a visitor, enter:
  user ID: ftevisitor
  password: ftevisitor
  Once in the site, choose a course from the links on the
  right of the screen. Click the course documents and assignments buttons
  to see sample lessons.

Teacher Presentation and Content Support Sources

• Heartland Institute: http://www.heartland.org
• PERC - The Center for Free Market Environmentalism: http://www.perc.org
• Ask Dr. Econ - the San Francisco Fed's Dr. Econ answers teachers' questions about the economy online. Answers to frequently asked questions are posted in a linked bulletin board: http://www.sf.frb.org/education/activities/drecon/askecon.cfm

Economics-Related Sources

• Government Regulations other publications of the Executive branch: http://www.geog.umn.edu/faculty/squires/courses/3361/regulation.html

• Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom: http://www.index.heritage.org

• Freedom House Index of Political Freedom: http://www.freedomhouse.org

• Jim Gwartney's Index of Economic Freedom (published on both the Cato and Fraser Institute sites)
  • http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html
  • http://www.cato.org/economicfreedom/

• Resources for Economists on the Internet: http://www.rfe.org/Teaching/index.html

• FirstGov search engine for all federal government sites: http://www.firstgov.gov

• The American Memory Collection of the Library of Congress: http://www.memory.loc.gov/amhome.html

• Historical primary source documents from Yale University Avalon Project: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm

• Bernie Dodge's Web Quest page at San Diego State University: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/

• Using WebQuests in the classroom - types and purposes: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about_webquests.html

• Sample Social Studies web quests: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/matrix/9-12-Soc.htm

• Missouri Council on Economic Education web quests and scoring guides for integrating economics in American History: http://www.umkc.edu/MCEEeconandhist/teachers/webquest.htm

  PowerPoint Templates:

• Downloadable econ powerpoints (from SouthWest publishing) http://www.swcollege.com/bef/gwartney/gwartney10e/instructor_downloads.html
• Brainy Betty's free PowerPoint templates to download: http://www.brainybetty.com/
• PowerPoint game show templates: http://www.websterschools.org/classrooms/mr_arcuri/
  • Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
• WebSiteEstates free education powerpoint templates: http://www.websiteestates.com/education/templatesindex.html