TEACHING TOOLS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN THE UNDERGRADUATE CLASSROOM: TWO EXERCISES

Abstract

We describe two classroom exercises which can be used to reinforce undergraduate students' understanding of (1) production and cost concepts and (2) the concept of economic scarcity. In the first exercise, students use their experience in producing “widgets” in a single variable input environment to derive a wide range of production and cost data. In the second exercise, students use their experience in producing two goods under various allocations of a fixed set of resources to generate a production possibilities frontier. The resulting links between concept and experience enhance students' understanding of these important concepts.