Maximizing Our Resources and Potential by Integrating Economics

Dr. Cheryl Fields, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education, and Alex Cuenca, Social Studies Education doctoral candidate, received a 2010 Teacher Quality grant titled “Maximizing Our Resources and Potential by Integrating Economics” (MORePIES).  The grant funded a project focused on providing professional development to middle school teachers to integrate economic standards and concepts into social studies instruction. This project is a partnership between Griffin-Spalding County Schools, UGA-Athens, UGA-Griffin, and the Georgia Council of Economic Education.  The project began with a three-day summer 2010 institute held at the UGA-Griffin campus’ Student Learning Center facility.  Teachers received a refresher course on ECON and TRADE 101 and participated in demonstration lessons representing a wide-variety of pedagogical approaches such as simulations, Place-as-Text, discussion-based strategies, and cooperative learning.  During the 2010-2011 school year, Dr. Fields and Alex Cuenca will provide professional development for the teachers by facilitating their self-study and action research projects.