The fate of Pizza Hut rested on the small shoulders of 260 Delaware students who had been trained in the principles of economics. The young scholars were assigned the task of coming up with a marketable use for thousands of delivery box lid supports or the hut was going to go out of business.
That was the dilemma facing 65 teams of 8 to 12 year olds from all over the state who participated, in May, in the 11th annual Meaningful Economics competition, sponsored by the College of Business and Economics' Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship.
There can be little doubt that Pizza Hut lives on, what with the invention of a new and improved bird house perch, a fork with which to spear fruit, thus avoiding sticky fingers; the Air Fighter II, a war toy for boys; the Gum-be-Gone; the Lady Bug Bar for killing aphids and feeding lady bugs; the Flippin Frog; Portable Back Scratcher; Waterfill, for filling water balloons, and an assortment of holders for rings, pepperoni, napkins, keys, rubber bands, candles and pictures.
The third to sixth graders also had to take a written test on the basic principles of economics. In addition, they created a tangramÐan ancient Chinese puzzle cut into seven shapes and then pasted together to form anything their imagination allowed and then was packaged for distribution.
Every grade level had first, second, third and fourth place winners in each of the three categories. The children had lunch and were given T-shirts that display the ME Competition logo. The logo changes each year at the competition when the students submit new designs.
Delaware elementary school teachers who have been through the center's programs are invited to bring one team to the competition for every 100 students of economics.
It has grown so much that this year coordinator Bonnie Meszaros had to limit entrants on a first-come, first-served basis. "Participation has more then doubled since the first competition," Meszaros said.
Louisiana, Arkansas and Alaska are now holding ME Competitions that were started by teachers who were trained at UD.
Barbara Garrison