District 170 students learning economics

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University of Chicago instructors Alec Brandon (right) and David Novgorodsky teach about the principles of economics to a class of District 170 eighth-graders. | Supplied Photo

Updated: January 5, 2012 8:03AM

Several eighth-grade students in Chicago Heights School District 170 are taking an economics class taught by instructors from the University of Chicago.

Twenty eighth-graders representing all nine District 170 elementary schools are learning about economics in an 11-session course that will end this month. A second group of 20 District 170 students will take the same course starting in January.

The economics class is the brainchild of District 170 Supt. Thomas Amadio and University of Chicago economics professor John List.

“This is probably only one of a handful of middle school social sciences classes in the country that teaches ideas like opportunity cost or supply-and-demand in an experiential way,” List said.

The students were selected after an application and interview process conducted by Amadio and other District 170 administrators.

“Economics and technology are the future, and I want to increase my knowledge of both,” said Wilson School eighth-grader Dante Jones, who is one of the students taking the course.

The class is held in the District 170 Distance Learning Center at Washington-McKinley School in Chicago Heights. Each student is provided a laptop computer, and the DLC is equipped with state-of-the-art technology.