The workshop will teach how the economic way of thinking can be used as a tool to teach the Common Core Standards and improve historical understanding. The workshop will feature six principles of economic reasoning and apply these to sharpen students’ understanding of key issues in history:

• Why did the British colonies succeed economically without finding gold and silver?
• Why would the American colonists fight a revolution when they were safe, prosperous and free?
• Why did the South fight when the North’s Economy was so much stronger?
• Why did a mild recession in 1929 become the Great Depression?
• Who desegregated major league baseball: Jackie Robinson or Adam Smith?

Each teacher will receive a copy of Focus: Understanding Economics in U.S. History. This curriculum includes 39 lessons. Teachers will also learn about a new student supplemental textbook titled Economic Episodes in American History authored by the presenter.