Fun--music and economics

Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 27

When I was at the Teaching Economics Conference at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh last week, I saw a fun presentation by G.Dirk Mateer and Andrew Rice of Penn State University. They demonstrated their use of music and very funny animated Flash files to get intro econo students jazzed up at the beginning of class. On their website, Flash Music for Economics, Mateer and Rice write:

This website showcases a series of animated Flash files that were created for use in teaching introductory economics. The Flash files are an eclectic mix of music from the last forty years. Each Flash animation includes synchronized lyrics to the song and an economic interpretation of the lyrics. Some of the animations also include pop-ups and visual tricks to enhance the experience

They’ve got a very funny sample from Weird Al’s “Ebay” accessible on the website. They’ve done a whole bunch of other songs, including “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” (Rolling Stones), “Beverly Hills” (Weezer), and “Rich Girl” (Gwen Stefani).

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.businessweek.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/