Alex Tabarrok on teaching the Solow Model in Principles… The Solow Model is a very important model for understanding economic growth. But students in introductory economics courses often miss out on this vital theory, leading to significant gaps in their grasp of economic growth. In this session, Alex Tabarrok will discuss how to incorporate the Solow Model into principles classes, a method also reflected in his textbook "Modern Principles of Macroeconomics," co-authored with Tyler Cowen. The Solow model can be made accessible to principles students and fun to teach by focusing on the key ideas. Attendees will learn strategies for effectively conveying the Solow Model to introductory students, ensuring a deeper and more relevant understanding of the dynamics of economic growth.   WATCH SESSION NOW! ... View more

Achieve is an online learning system that supports students and instructors at every step, from the first point of contact with new content to demonstrating mastery of concepts and skills. Below are brief videos of Achieve’s powerful resources including an integrated e-book, graphing questions with targeted feedback, and a wealth of interactives create an extraordinary learning resource for students. You can watch the videos of the activities you plan to use or learn about new assignments to add to your course. E-Book The Achieve e-book allows students to highlight and take notes; instructors can choose to assign sections of the e-book as part of their course assignments.   LearningCurve With a game-like interface, LearningCurve offers students a low-stakes way to brush up on concepts and help identify knowledge gaps. Questions are linked to relevant e-book sections, providing both the incentive to read and a framework for an efficient reading experience.   Graphing Developed by economists active in the classroom, these multistep questions are adapted from problems found in the text. Each problem is paired with rich feedback for incorrect and correct responses that guide students through the process of problem solving. These questions also feature our user-friendly graphing tool, designed so students focus entirely on economics and not on how to use the application.   Achieve Overview Achieve is a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools. It incorporates the most effective elements from Macmillan’s market-leading solutions in a single, easy-to-use platform. Our resources were co-designed with instructors and students, using a foundation of learning research and rigorous testing.   Achieve Spotlight: Pre-Class Tutorials Pre-class tutorials foster basic understanding of core economic concepts before students ever set foot in class. Students watch pre-lecture videos and complete bridge question assessments that prepare them to engage in class. Instructors receive data about student comprehension that can inform their lecture preparation.   Achieve Spotlight: Assessment  Powered by a robust graphing engine developed by economists active in the classroom, these multistep questions are paired with rich feedback for incorrect and correct responses that guides students through the process of problem solving. Students are asked to demonstrate their understanding by simply clicking, dragging, and dropping a line to a predetermined location. This graphing tool has been designed so that students’ entire focus is on moving the correct curve in the correct direction, virtually eliminating grading issues for instructors.   Achieve Spotlight: Work It Outs These skill-building activities pair sample end-of-chapter problems with targeted feedback and video explanations to help students solve problems step by step. This approach allows students to work independently, tests their comprehension of concepts, and prepares them for class and exams.   Achieve Spotlight: In-Class Activity Guides Each guide is based on a single topic and allows students to participate through questions, group work, presentations, and/or simulations. The guide displays the activity type, estimated prep and class time, implementation instructions, suggestions for remote implementation where applicable, and Learning Objectives and Bloom’s Level for ease of use. Our Instructor Activity Guides encourage engagement from a Pre-Class Reflection question to prime student interest and offer follow-up clicker questions to measure comprehension.   Achieve Spotlight: Stevenson/Wolfers - Decision Point Activities Decision Points activities allow students to explore their own decision-making process and how economic principles and thinking can inform their decisions. Students work step by step through decision-making scenarios, receiving feedback about how economic principles did (or did not) play into their choices. Decision Points help students apply economic insights to their everyday lives.   Achieve Spotlight: Stevenson/Wolfers - Step By Step Graphs Available only in the e-book, step-by-step graphs mirror how an instructor constructs graphs in the classroom. By breaking the process down into its components, these graphs create more manageable “chunks” for students to understand each step of the process.   Achieve Spotlight: Cowen/Tabarrok - MRU Videos MRU features perhaps the most extensive series of economics education videos available. More than 150 of these videos have been deeply integrated into the text and pedagogy of Modern Principles, extending the authors’ perspectives into the online learning space, and providing valuable tools for both instructors and students throughout the learning path.   Achieve Spotlight: Econofacts Memos Macmillan Learning has partnered with EconoFact to bring incisive and accessible analysis of current economic and policy trends into the economics classroom. The EconoFact Network provides even-handed and timely analysis of economic issues drawing on relevant data, historical experience, and well-regarded economic frameworks presented in the form of a short memo. In Achieve, instructors can access in-class activity guides to help integrate the memos into their own lectures. Instructors can also access and assign assessment on each memo that starts with basic reading comprehension and builds up to applying the analytical tools students have learned in their course to the economic or policy issue covered in the memo.   Achieve Spotlight: Discovering Data These exercises require students to use the Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED) related to the concepts discussed in the chapter. Students will get practical experience manipulating data by being asked, for example, to track the impact of a sales tax on tobacco sales. In working these problems, students will gain a greater understanding of core concepts while also working with an impressive data resource. ... View more