Linkages Between Economic Life and the Majors

Frequently, the study of economics is considered to be irrelevant to students who are not in the College of Business and Administration. This belief is particularly common to those students first attending EC 200 -- Economic Life, a general education course. In response to this general misconception, I applied for and received a grant from the WSU Foundation in 1995-96. The purpose of the grant proposal -- Building Linkages Between Economic Life and the Majors -- was to develop in-class and co-curricular activities that assist students in connecting principles and ideas in Economic Life to their majors.

During the project, I identified linkages between economics and majors/careers, created linkage activities for each major/career according to learning style and developed assessment tools.

The following is a representative sample of the linkage activities developed. Watch a pre-selected movie and answer specific questions that relate to economic issues to a specific discipline. Interview someone who already has a job/career in your major and ask specific questions about how economics relate to that career. For those in communications, do a 5-minute newscast for the class on some aspect of the economy or write a "column" about some aspect of the economy. Choose another member of the class and conduct a 10 minute point-counterpoint debate on two issues affecting the economy that might affect your career. Calculate a career CPI by selecting ten items most often used in your career/profession and chose stores of differing types where you can track the prices. Compare the prices among the stores and discuss the factors that might cause the prices to fluctuate. If you are going to start your own business, put together a realistic budget that would be required to start the business.

Some of the linkage activities as well as others may be used as a basis for the required writing assignments for economic life.