Roundtable: Economics in K-12
I. David Wheat, PhD, MPP
Emeritus Professor of System Dynamics, University of Bergen, Norway�Professor of Economic Dynamics, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine�Professor of Financial Economics, ISM University, Lithuania�Professor of Economics, Virginia Western Community College, USA
May 25, 2023
System Dynamics Group
david.wheat@uib.no
25 years
recently: STEM teacher training� in Kyiv & Lviv
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https://www.usefulmodels.net
david.wheat@uib.no
Introducing SD-based Macro, gradually by grade-level
High Tech & Low Tech Approach: �🡪 SD Modeling plus Economic History plus Math/Science�🡪 mindful of ‘age-appropriate’ content & skills
Economic History & Math/Science�• Micro concepts in lower grades, macro in middle & high school
• Mostly national economic history (in context of world-wide issues)� - policy issues: unemployment, inflation, taxes, debt, etc.� - time series graphs, percentages & percentage change, working with equations
SD Modeling�• translate textbook & media causal statements into SD causal links & loops� - emphasize hypotheses, not ‘laws’� - two-way causal links & simple loops� - infer ‘plus & minus’ signs from equations
• stock/flow/feedback simulation modeling� - smallest structures, later combined into systemic feedback structures� - translate structure into text (similar to ‘Stella stories’)
lots of practice
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https://www.usefulmodels.net
david.wheat@uib.no
Some Resources
1. Special K-12 SIG Meeting on Teaching Economics (Oct 2022)
2. Monetary Policy Game with Stella Stories (CLD & SFD).
https://exchange.iseesystems.com/public/david-wheat/mpgaccess
3. Slides & model: teaching ‘Business Policy Dynamics’ to a CA high school
email me at david.wheat@uib or dwheat@usefulmodels.net
4. Special requests, too. Just email me.
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https://www.usefulmodels.net
david.wheat@uib.no
I. David Wheat�Emeritus Professor of System Dynamics, University of Bergen, Norway�Professor of Economics, Virginia Western Community College, United States�Professor of Monetary Policy, ISM University of Management & Economics, Lithuania�Professor of Economic Dynamics, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine
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Professor Wheat studies economic systems. His research specialty is simulation modeling of macroeconomic structure and behavior in Ukraine and Lithuania, in addition to the United States.
He teaches monetary policy and economic dynamics to graduate students in Lithuania and Ukraine. He also teaches macroeconomics to undergraduates in the United States. In Norway, he taught the system dynamics modeling process for many years, and he continues to teach courses in macroeconomic dynamics and policy design & implementation. His projects include collaboration with Ukrainian economists to build dynamic modeling capacity at national universities in Kyiv and Lviv, creation of a system dynamics version of the central bank’s monetary policy model, and building an economic policy model for Ukrainian government ministries. He also worked with economists at Lithuania’s central bank to develop a multi-industry system dynamics model of price dynamics in Europe.
For more than twenty years, his system dynamics-based MacroLab model has been used by macroeconomics students in the United States. That model is available online, and students can use it without special software. He is currently writing a textbook to supplement student use of MacroLab. His latest economics journal article is Teaching Endogenous Money with Systems Thinking and Simulation Tools, and the most recent conference paper was MacroLab20: A Framework for Comparative Macroeconomics (with M. Oliskevych and A. Novik). He is co-editor of Feedback Dynamics (Springer 2021), which includes ‘Get Started with Macro Modeling’ co-authored with Oliskevych and Novik.
Wheat is past-president of the economics chapter of the International System Dynamics Society. He served as Associate Editor of the System Dynamics Review and on the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education. He has given more than thirty international guest lectures. For three decades, he was president of Wheat Resources Inc, a consulting firm serving business and government clients. His current firm, Praktika LLC, specializes in coaching others to build useful models (https://www.usefulmodels.net). He received his PhD in system dynamics at the University of Bergen, his master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University, and his bachelor’s degree in government and mathematics at Texas Tech University. During the 1970s, he served at the White House as staff assistant to the President of the United States.
In a previous life, he and his young family lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where they built a barn and raised goats and chickens, and he was Coach of the Year twice after winning back-to-back state championships in high school girls’ basketball. Now, he and his wife Cynthia have settled in Colorado, halfway between their daughters’ families to the east and west.
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https://www.usefulmodels.net
david.wheat@uib.no