By: Tim Liebler, Economics Teacher
Leadership Preparatory High School, Oakland, CA

As an Economics teacher who recently taught IES for the second time, I have found that IES is one of the best ways to introduce students to the reality of Economic Globalization, while also covering the myriad of content standards demanded by the state of California. This past year, the Economic Education team at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco created a web application to assist teachers in the collection of student data and the generation of reports. This web tool has proved to be an immense time saver, and has truly revolutionized the way I have been able to teach the IES curriculum.

As you know, IES is a competition and performance must be tracked and points awarded in different categories based on student mastery or completion of a project component. During my first year using the project, the responsibility of collecting all of the Pre-Point data (those components the students must complete in advance of the Mini Summit) fell squarely on my shoulders as a teacher, which sometimes I found to be both time consuming and tedious.

For instance, each country must submit a list of import goals. Last year, in order to collect this data I had to first create an Excel spreadsheet which included all of the countries in the Mini Summit along with their export goals. First, each student would physically turn their import goals in to me in the Player’s Guide. Then, after making sure they properly met the Balance of Trade Rule and the Foreign Aid Rule, I had to manually type that information into the Excel spreadsheet, copy the report, and distribute it back to the students so they could begin planning their trade alliances. Unfortunately, there were many opportunities for mistakes to be made and usually, they were made on my part as the teacher who “controlled” all the incoming data.

With the new web application the students are now empowered to input their own data. They do this by creating an account on the web site (which is password protected). As the “owner” of the Mini Summit web page for Leadership Preparatory High School, I am able to set the due dates on the web site by which the students must enter their own data – such as the import goals. If the information is not added by the deadlines then the points are not awarded. The responsibility has shifted to the student.

In terms of the import goals, the process is also much faster. When I create the web account, all I need to do is to enter the names of the countries that are in my Mini Summit. The export report (which I formerly had to create in Excel) is then automatically generated, and, after the students submit their import goals on their own time, the import report is generated as well. This process makes a huge difference by putting the onus on students to meet deadlines and thus take charge of their own learning. If teams want to win (and they almost always do) they must be cognizant of the rules of the game.

The web application also consolidates all of the IES information into one place, which allows for the easy generation of numerous reports. Another example of a time saving feature is the tool which generates the trade issue report and collects the Pre-Vote. During my first year, I asked students to write down their trade issues and then turn them in to me on paper. I then had to photocopy all of the trade issues and assemble them into a packet for the students to read. After the students finished reading the packet, they would do the Pre-Vote, by noting their top three favorite trade issues on a piece of paper. I then had to re-collect the votes and actually tally all of them up in order to figure out which countries received the most votes (and therefore should receive extra Signature Cards in their country packet).

Now, with the web application this report is automatically generated. Students go online and type in their trade issues. Later, once all the issues have been submitted, a report is automatically generated. I can either print it up, or the students can go online to view it. They then vote online as well, by checking off the boxes of the issues they want to support. The program then tallies everything, and I only need get involved when it is time to see the final results.

Using these features has made a huge difference to the ease with which I am able to implement this project and prepare for my Mini Summit. Not only does it save time, it also serves as a technological component for the students to strengthen their computer skills (One student usually takes responsibility for inputting the data by becoming the designated “Technology Officer” for their nation). As the Fed continues to make enhancements to both the International Economic Summit project and the web application specifically, we anxiously await the spring’s Northern California competition.