What it’s all about:  

You and your team represent a group of economic advisors assigned to a country with the job of improving the standard of living for the inhabitants of your country.  You can better the country’s standard of living through international trade and internal improvements.  Your role as an economic advisor requires you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your country and develop specific goals for improving the standard of living. Your team and the rest of the world’s economic advisors will meet in the international marketplace to trade for the goods and services needed to achieve your goals.  Global competition for scarce resources will complicate your efforts; but careful planning and trade negotiations will improve your chances of success. 

Duties of the Economic Advisor:  

Over the course of the next several weeks, you must become knowledgeable about economic, political, and social situations within your country.  This knowledge will be used to develop a strategic plan for improving the quality of life for the country’s inhabitants.  You will be given a list of exports specific for your country.  You must determine the type of imports best suited to meeting your strategic goals.  In addition, you may decide to initiate improvement projects within your country. 

How the Summit works:

 The day of the Economic Summit, teams of economic advisors will come together, strategic plans in hand, to negotiate and trade their way toward achieving their goals.  Each team will participate in several rounds of negotiation and trade. 

Points will be awarded for completing specific tasks and objectives.  Those economic advisory teams with the highest point totals at the end of the day will be recognized and appropriately rewarded.

Scoring:  

Advisory teams receive points for accomplishing specific Summit objectives.  

You may also obtain more information on the International Economic Summit by visiting the following web site at:

http://econsummit.org/

Materials Needed for this course:

As a participant of this course, you will receive the following materials to assist you with the completion of this course and all assignments:

•   International Player's Guide (student guide)

•   Teacher Handbook

•   International Summit CD

Objectives

The following are the learning objectives for the Summit program:

Objective 1: Economics – We will learn about the benefits and controversies associated with Free Trade and evaluate the consequences of trade policies.

Objective 2: Economics – We will learn about why people trade and how the relative openness of trade contributes to living standards.

Objective 3: Economics – We will learn the vocabulary of international trade that includes phrases such as: balance of trade, comparative advantage, imports, exports, currency, rates of exchange, tariff, and free trade.

Objective 4: Economics – We will learn about how countries around the globe work and live.  We will also learn about the opportunities available to people in these countries and the impact an economic system has on these opportunities.

Objective 5: Economic Summit – We will develop specific country improvement plans that will be implemented at the Economic Summit event.  We will also master the activities of the Summit event that include forming trade alliances, the signature session, discussion of trade issues, completing the trade session, and keeping score.

Objective 6:  Communication – We will learn how to collect, organize, evaluate, and present data about individual countries and their living standards.

How do I get involved?

Contact Leon Maynard at the Idaho Council on Economic Education at Boise State University: (208) 426-1810 or leonmaynard@boisestate.edu.

At the completion of this course, you will receive an adequate supply of Player's Guide books for students, trading coupons, and all other supplies necessary to conduct your own International Economic Summit Project and Event. (mini summit kit)

Instructional Philosophy:

It is assumed that each participant has a working knowledge of basic Economic concepts.  Therefore, coverage of these subcategories will not be comprehensive.  Participants in this course will achieve the objective to teach the International Economic Summit to their students.

The course is divided into eight lesson as follows:

* This part of the course will be conducted as a face-to-face one day training session with a summit facilitator.