The Learning Center

🎒 Economic Marvels is back, bigger and better for the new school year!

New this year: Economic Marvels features videos from Professor Matthew Rousu, Dean of the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University. His ability to make business and economics creative, engaging, and easy to understand is unsurpassed, and we’re thrilled to bring his expertise into your classroom.

We’re kicking off the year with The Economics of Back to School! ✏️📚

Back-to-school season is about a lot more than new notebooks, fresh sneakers, and remembering your locker combination. Every choice has a cost, and those packed store shelves offer a real-world lesson in supply, demand, incentives, and entrepreneurship.

From the opportunity cost of going to college 🎓 to the entrepreneurs betting big on what students will buy, economics is everywhere this time of year. Students will explore how incentives, innovation, human capital, and supply and demand shape the decisions made by students, families, and businesses.

And they’ll tackle a big question: Will that college diploma pay off, or is it just a really expensive piece of paper? 💰📈

So sharpen your pencils and your economic thinking, because it’s time to get schooled in The Economics of Back to School! ✏️

Whether you're teaching AP® Economics, an honors economics course, or an introductory college economics class, Next Level Econ gives you everything you need to help students master challenging concepts and prepare for success.

✔️ Practice-packed worksheets
✔️ Detailed answer keys
✔️ Graphing practice and data analysis
✔️ Higher-order thinking questions
✔️ Every major topic in the AP® Economics curriculum
✔️ Perfect for in-class activities, homework, or formative assessment

Help your students build confidence, sharpen their economic reasoning, and be ready for exam day.

Always free at 👉 teachers.fee.org

This summer, 13 outstanding educators from universities and high schools across 12 states and 3 countries came together for FEE's second Teacher Fellowship cohort!

During FEE's Summer Campus, our Fellows explored the economics of the Great Enrichment alongside students, collaborated with fellow educators, and participated in hands on sessions designed to bring economic thinking to life in their classrooms.

The learning doesn't stop here. Over the coming semester, each Fellow will develop a capstone project that will extend FEE's mission to thousands of students through innovative classroom resources and instruction.

If you're passionate about inspiring the next generation with the ideas of a free society, we'd love to have you join us. Applications for our Spring Teacher Fellowship open later this fall. We hope you'll apply for this incredible opportunity!

FEE Teacher Fellows had a rewarding visit to the Cato Institute to spend an afternoon hearing amazing speakers on Trade, AI, Abundance and more at the Sphere Sunmit!! Thanks Sphere Education Initiatives for having us!

Our star ‘26 FEE Teacher Fellows!

Amazing start to the FEE Teacher Fellowship, where 13 educators were welcomed to DC by FEE President Diogo Costa and President Emeritus Lawrence Reed!

Last week, the Foundation for Economic Education had the privilege of partnering with the Council On Economic Education for a professional development workshop at Chase Field in Phoenix. Team ACEE was a wonderful host. I enjoyed leading a room of dedicated Arizona educators ready to rethink how economics gets taught. Together we demoed five new lessons that use America's pastime, and the wider world of sports, as the on-ramp to serious economic reasoning. From prices as signals at the ticket window to positive-sum thinking that moves students past zero-sum instincts, the day was built to model instruction teachers can walk into their classrooms and use. Watching educators connect subjective value, opportunity cost, and entrepreneurial alertness to the games their students already love was a reminder that the most durable economics lessons start with something familiar.

Two of the lessons I wrote drew especially rich conversation. "Why the World Cup Won't Boost the Economy" puts opportunity cost and the broken-window fallacy to work, giving students the tools to look past the headlines and evaluate the real economic impact of sporting mega-events. And "The Bottom of the Budget," a personal finance lesson on the risks of sports betting, walks students through the mechanics of the parlay bet and the math of expected value — showing exactly why "easy money" so rarely is, while building the budgeting and risk-literacy skills Arizona students need. My deep thanks to ACEE's Kathy Pondy M.Ed. and Elena Zee for making the day possible and for their shared commitment to putting economic and financial literacy within reach of every student. BTW, summer mornings in Phoenix are gorgeous.

Why does it feel like everything costs more? There's an economics behind it, and FEE - Foundation for Economic Education is challenging you to understand it. Take the Affordability Contest, test your knowledge, and you could walk away with $1 million.
milliondollarquestion.org [https://milliondollarquestion.org/]

This week's Economic Marvels 250th Edition is titled Corn Dog Capitalism 🌭, where we're about to batter your understanding of economics and prove that the greatest ideas in American history are sometimes fried to perfection! For over 80 years, the Fletcher family has been turning a simple corn dog into a $5 million, 24-day empire at the largest state fair in the country. The story of how they did it is packed with business and economics concepts you need to know 🤑 Fletcher's Corny Dogs serves up a masterclass in what makes the American free market economy the most powerful wealth-generating machine the world has ever seen. As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, there is no better time to ask why this country produces more innovation, more entrepreneurship, and more opportunity than anywhere else on earth, and the answer might just be hiding inside a perfectly battered corn dog. So grab your mustard (never your ketchup) and get ready to discover some Corn Dog Capitalism.

Do you really need that… or were you influenced to want it? 💭💸

In this Financial Empowerment lesson, students dive into The Psychology of Spending—unpacking impulse buying, FOMO, and the hidden ways ads, emotions, and social media shape our choices. From real-life scenarios to self-reflection, this activity helps build smarter habits and stronger financial awareness.

Because every dollar has a purpose—and every decision adds up.

Access this lesson and more at teachers.fee.org!