izzit: Educational Treasure Found by Ed Tooley

FREE! That word caught my attention as I perused my list of e-mails. Teachers receive numerous educational advertisements over the internet daily. Most products are unattainable because of the cost. At the school where I teach, there happened to be a “freeze” on all purchases because of budget issues. But this advertisement said, “Free.” We could afford free.

I was suspicious and skeptical. But the name izzit also had a curious ring to it. I had to know what it was all about.

I am so thankful that I made the effort some years ago to investigate this free offer. I have been able to show a number of izzit.org videos over the years. The response is always positive. The videos are short in length, but deep in substance. The content  makes students and teachers think, discuss, analyze and pursue educational issues that are meaningful and weighty.

In graduate school, educators are taught, or should I say ingrained with, an effective thinking strategy called Bloom’s Taxonomy. The purpose of this strategy is to help teachers lead students into higher-level thinking activities. The taxonomy has six levels. The lowest level begins with basic knowledge, and then each level proceeds to higher-level thinking skills, such as analysis and evaluation. The izzit.org products track with this method very well. 

The videos make students think about serious and important subject matter, like property rights, markets and entrepreneurship. As an educator, I search high and low for materials and activities that are both interesting and substantive. The products izzit.org creates hit the mark on both counts. They're student-friendly, which captures their attention. The subject matter encompasses a topic that make students analyze and defend their positions, rather than just recalling information by rote. The videos come with supplemental materials that will put a smile on any teacher’s face. (We save so much valuable time.)

         

I have used the izzit.org products mainly with my seventh grade social studies classes. It amazes me to observe, first-hand, the quality of ideas and solutions that come from these young people, as they confronted such important issues.

            

Allow me to share a quick story: Not long after I received my first izzit.org DVD, I shared my enthusiasm of the quality of the product with the economics teacher. She showed her senior economics class the DVD I recommended, and a magical moment occurred. After viewing the DVD, a senior economics student went out of her way to inform me just how much she enjoyed the video. She went on and on about how much her class enjoyed both the content, and the quality of the program.

            

One more story:  At a teachers’ conference, I was a seminar

speaker. I had the opportunity to share the izzit.org products with those in attendance. After a few minutes of sharing, a fellow teacher commented about the cost of the products. "What is it?” she asked.

I replied, “How did you know the name of the company?” I also explained the mind-blowing concept of FREE resources for educators.


Are you looking for great resources to use with your students? Well…look no further…this izzit!

The Value of Trade by Andrew Jobson

The Value of Trade

Teaching Economics again gave me the chance to use a fun introductory activity I learned long ago from a GCEE (Georgia Council for Economic Education) workshop.  The goal is to show how trade occurs because people feel that they have gained.  In other words, with voluntary exchange, everyone wins.

You start by preparing a small opaque bag of goodies for each student in the class.  I have typically used candy, but you can use other small items depending on the age of the students (nickels, erasers, pencils, stickers, etc.).  The bags should have some variety, reflecting the disparate resources that we all have.  It’s also okay to give some bags more than others for the same reason, although each should have at least enough to engage in some trade.


After warning the students to keep their contents secret for now, distribute the bags and ask each person to rate his or her satisfaction level with the contents on a scale of 1 to 10. The students should write the number down, although they don’t have to announce it.

I don’t remember if I learned the lesson this way, but I started by putting students in groups of three to compare bags and trade if they were interested.  After a few minutes, I expanded their “market” and let them move around the entire class to see what people had and to offer trades.  (Having recently revisited Smith’s Wealth of Nations, I was thinking about his comments on the value of large markets.)

Following the entire class trading market, the students (at least those who engaged in trade) re-evaluated their satisfaction.  Now we compared their initial rating with their revised rating and discussed the changes.  A few items that we addressed:  1) Why did most people’s satisfaction go up? 2) Do you see any trades that you think were bad trades? Why did they happen?  3) What happened when the market expanded?  How does this relate to world trade today? 4) At least one person traded, not because he valued the items he got in trade, but because he valued the friendship of another student more than the contents of his bag.  This was an interesting scenario which led to a discussion of how “self-interest” occasionally means more than simple economic status.

I know this isn’t original, but it’s fun and helpful to the students.  I love and value reading, but anytime we can get them to do something active (especially at my all-boys school), it’s a good day.  I hope you find it useful.  


Note from Susan Gable (izzit.org Director of Educational Curriculum) – The activity Andy describes here is exactly the activity in our educational video Win/Win – A Trading Game. If you’d like to see a classroom demonstration of the activity to get a better understanding of how to do it, watch the video or select it for your izzit.org Free Annual Video DVD. Additional resources are available with it as well.

An educator of 22 years, Andy Jobson has taught government, economics, and U.S. History. Currently teaching English literature at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, GA, he’s also been an administrator, a STAR teacher twice, and taught elementary school with Teach for America. 

What's Your "Poop"? by Lee Mayfield

As a high school agriculture teacher, I am required to provide each student with a "work-based experience." We call this and "SAE" project: Supervised Agriculture Experience. These projects are designed to teach students the value of hard work, relevant work and to instill the entrepreneurial spirit. Some students find jobs by working for other people. Others take on projects on the school grounds. Still others develop their own agricultural projects bu raising animals, maintaining lawns, growing crops, or by starting a host of other small-scale enterprises. Last spring, after the students had been engaged in their various SAE projects for a few months, I wrote the following Ronald Reagan quote on the chalkboard: "There is no constraint on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect." I asked the students if this was a true statement.

At first, most were quick to agree. But as I pressed the students to think about this quote in the terms of their SAE projects, the students began to see constraints and barriers that limited their potential for success. Most of these barriers had been placed on them by others. One student mentioned he was not allowed to pursue his ambition of raising horses on his land because of local zoning laws. Another student mentioned regulations regarding how he could advertise in his community. Another student mentioned the fees, taxes, and burdensome regulations about growing watermelons he sold at his family's roadside produce stand.

I then showed my students the izzit.org video From Poop to Profits. The video illustrated how a Michigan dairy farmer was able to use innovation and his entrepreneurial spirit to overcome obstacles related to his success. The students quickly related the experiences of the dairy farmer to the barriers they were facing with their SAE projects. I challenged my students to take inspiration from the video and apply the concepts in order to overcome any obstacles. In the video, the dairy farmer used resources he had readily available on his farm (manure) to create a value-added product to replace income lost due to low dairy prices, which had threatened to bankrupt his operation.

After engaging in a lengthy class discussion about the story of how the dairy farmer had turned a dire situation into a successful business venture, I assigned each student with a task: Each was simply to put him-or-herself in the position of the dairy farmer. I asked them to imagine what they would do if they, and their families, depended on their projects for their livelihoods. How would the students overcome these barriers which they had mentioned earlier in the class discussion? What solutions could they innovate? Do they have any untapped resources that could generate additional income? What was their "poop" they could turn into profits? I gave each of them two weeks to research, write, and present their ideas to the class.

The result were amazing. Here are some examples:

Josh is a junior who has steadily grown a small neighborhood lawn mowing service since he was a freshman. Josh took inspiration from the video and looked into the waste he created from mowing lawns. His "poop" turned out to be grass clippings. After researching several uses for the clippings, h e came across and idea to use the decaying grass clippings to generate heat for his small greenhouse. In his research, Josh discovered that a well-aerated compost pile typically generates between 90-140 degrees Fahrenheit internal temperatures. In our moderate climate, Josh determined that this was more than enough to heat his small greenhouse. With his heating issue resolved, he diversified his operation by growing vegetable seedlings in the greenhouse. He sold the vegetable transplants to area farmers and gardeners to supplement his lawn care project.

Amanda is a senior who was born and raised on the family farm. As a freshman, she began growing watermelons for sale at her family's roadside stand. While she was relatively successful with her watermelon project, she was inspired by the From Poop to Profits video and wondered if she could make additional profits. She asked herself "What would Brad Morgan (the dairy farmer) do?" She immediately looked into what she was wasting. Turns out her "poop" was unsold watermelons. Amanda researched the uses for watermelon rinds, and discovered rinds could be made into an assortment of products. She preferred rind preserves. By using the rinds from watermelons which would otherwise be discarded, she was able to produce a high quality product that has yielded additional income and become a local favorite.

Tanner was not raised on a farm. Instead he lives in a community without much land to raise large animals or grown crops. Since his sophomore year he has raised specialty rabbits that he sells mainly around Easter. After watching the video Tanner said "If that dairy farmer can turn cow poop into a profit then surely my rabbit poop has to be worth something!" Tanner was right. While the manure Tanner's rabbits produce is not enough to generate a sellable product, he was able to work out an agreement with a community garden that was just as good as money. Tanner agreed to supply the manure to the community garden, and in return, the garden manager would give Tanner the excess lettuce, carrots, and other produce Tanner could use as rabbit feed. Tanner said his inspiration came from From Poop to Profits, where he heard the phrase: "Do what you do best, and trade for the rest." Tanner learned that in a free society, businesses can work together for mutual benefit.

These, and many other students, have shared example after example of how izzit.org's From Poop to Profits video has moved them to explore innovative avenues in overcoming barriers to success. Later in the year, I wrote the quote from Ronald Reagan on the board again and asked the students if the statement was true. This time, without hesitation, they simply said "yes."