Economics with meaning
Students create new products during Meaningful Economics and Entrepreneurship Competition
10:14 a.m., June 8, 2015--“Anyone who does laundry has experienced the dreaded lost sock dilemma. Matched pairs of socks go into the washing machine. At the end of the cycle, one sock is missing.”
So began this year’s problem-solving activity at the 29th annual Meaningful Economics and Entrepreneurship (ME*) Competition, which challenges teams of Delaware students in third through sixth grade with unique projects designed for each grade level. This year, the competition tasked fourth-graders with creating a product that makes use of one sock.
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With this as a springboard, teams designed inventions like a sock duplicator machine, which creates perfect matches of missing socks.
Others repurposed unmatched socks instead, creating products like Snuggle Buddies – sweaters for very small dogs, which have a hard time maintaining body heat.
Another one of the winning ideas was the Bottle Socker, which wraps around water bottles to collect excess condensation. The team behind the idea, which came from Downes Elementary School, said that they practiced daily during recess to prepare for the competition. Most of them are repeat ME* attendees.
When asked their thoughts on the competition, the team had two words: “Love it.”
Kara Hinson said that she felt the same way about the ME* Competition when she participated as an elementary school student years ago. Hinson now works as a banker for CapitalOne, and also volunteers as a judge for the students’ project presentations. She calls the event her favorite volunteering activity.
“It’s good to see the kids coming together to share their different ideas,” Hinson said. She called the competition “good practice for them, to do something different than the normal curriculum and just to think outside the box.”
Hinson participated as an elementary student in a class taught by Ronni Cohen, who has worked as an educator in Delaware for over 40 years. Hinson said that her experiences in the competition and Cohen’s associated course strongly influenced her eventual career trajectory, calling it her only introduction to subjects that she would focus on for the rest of her career.
“Other than her class, we never touched on those topics in school,” Hinson said.
And this lack of economics and entrepreneurship education in schools is what inspired the ME* Competition’s original inception, said Cohen.
She explained that the ME* Competition began with one teacher saying, “We have Science Olympiad; we have math league; we have spelling bee. Why don’t we have an economics competition?”
Cohen is now the executive director of the Delaware Financial Literacy Institute (DFLI), which works with UD’s Center for Economics Education and Entrepreneurship (CEEE) to administer the competition.
Having worked with the CEEE since 1972, Cohen calls the center “a treasure in the state” for the resources it provides to students and teachers.
“They show you a whole different way to teach,” she said of the CEEE’s teacher training programs, calling their teaching methods “more interactive and hands-on.”
Cohen added that the ME* Competition gives students “a chance to be cooperative and collaborate,” as well as “to learn that economics, finance and entrepreneurship are exciting.”
Associate director of the CEEE Bonnie Meszaros said that ME*, which this year included 120 teams of 480 students from 22 schools, also provides students with a friendly introduction to academic competition.
“It also allows them to demonstrate their ability to apply their content knowledge and use their entrepreneurial talents to solve problems,” Meszaros said.
Participating teachers had similarly positive sentiments about the ME* Competition, describing their excited students often practicing for the event at lunch or after school.
Teachers said their students built skills during the competition in areas like time management, creative thinking and teamwork.
Julie Dooley from Jenny Smith Elementary School said that she has seen shy students come out of their shells and develop leadership skills while participating in the ME* Competition.
She also said that the competition helps students to become more media-literate.
“Through this they’re becoming more conscientious consumers, making better decisions instead of falling for that snazzy ad,” Dooley said.
Marshall Elementary School teacher Nancy Ventresca said that the competition teaches responsibility by requiring students to participate in teams without their teachers’ help.
“It really encourages them to be independent,” said Ventresca, who this year is participating in the ME* Competition for the 10th year in a row.
Another benefit of the competition, she said, is that it provides students with the opportunity to speak to the judges about their projects.
“It gives them a chance to practice speaking to adults who really want to hear their ideas,” Ventresca said. “That can be powerful for a little kid.”
Article by Sunny Rosen
Photos by Evan Krape