Teaching the Tough Stuff: Making Economics Engaging and Classroom-Ready
Friday, January 15, 2027 | 8:00 AM – 2:15 PM
Location: Saieh Hall, University of Chicago
Cost: Free ($25 refundable registration deposit)
Professional Development: 6 CPDU Hours
The University of Chicago’s Economics for Everyone (E4E) initiative and the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) invite educators to Teaching the Tough Stuff, a free, full-day professional development workshop designed to make challenging economic concepts accessible, engaging, and relevant to students.
This interactive event will provide teachers with practical instructional strategies, real-world examples, and classroom-ready resources that can be immediately incorporated into economics, government, and social studies courses.
Workshop Highlights
Participants will explore a variety of engaging topics, including:
- Using Experiments in the Classroom: Discover how hands-on economic experiments can help students understand complex concepts.
- Spectrum of Solutions: Regulation & Missing Markets: Examine property rights, government regulation, and approaches to market failures.
- Storks, State Exams, & Spurious Numbers: Strengthen students’ data literacy by exploring correlation, causation, and misleading statistics.
- Grounds for Debate: Who Planned Your Morning Coffee? Use everyday experiences to spark meaningful classroom discussions about economic systems.
- The Economics of Unintended Consequences: Investigate how well-intentioned policies and decisions can produce unexpected results.
Featured Speakers
The workshop features Evan Rose, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago; James Redelsheimer, Education Manager at FEE; and Carl Coates, Director of Educational Products and Outreach for Economics for Everyone.
Registration Information
Registration is free, with a $25 refundable deposit that will be returned after attending the event. Participants can earn 6 CPDU hours and will have opportunities to network with fellow educators, explore new teaching resources, and participate in special gift drawings.
The Indiana Council for the Social Studies (ICSS) encourages social studies educators interested in strengthening economic literacy and bringing new instructional strategies into their classrooms to take advantage of this professional development opportunity.
Register for Teaching the Tough Stuff
For additional information, visit Economics for Everyone at the University of Chicago.