When designing an economics class, sometimes the best approach is to start in reverse. In this episode, University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Sam Allgood discusses the power of "backward design." It's a technique that encourages educators to first think about what they want students to master by the end of a course before developing individual lesson plans. Allgood also discusses with St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla the value of having a growth mindset in the classroom and how AI can be used to create individualized learning content.

David Autor, MIT's Daniel and Gail Rubinfeld professor of economics, is a leading thinker and researcher on how AI could reshape the labor market. While he says AI could revolutionize how we work, it won't replace human intuition. In this episode, Autor joins St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla and explains how he challenges students to use technology as a collaborator, not a crutch. He also discusses his approach for pushing students to focus on how economics can solve real-world problems.

Could brain science help unlock students' understanding of complex economic topics?

In this episode, St. Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla explores that question with educator and author Patrice Bain. Bain spent years working with cognitive scientists to better understand how people learn and wrote about her findings in her book "Powerful Teaching." She shares her four "power tools" for learning and how they can be applied to economic education.