Monday, February 06, 2006
First Assignment -- Due Thursday by 11AM
Welcome to Everybody's Doin' It. I am really looking forward to this semester. The course has been great the past four years, but I think I have made a few exciting changes to how the course is going to operate. It think we are going to have a lot of fun (oh yeah, I'll try and make sure you learn something too).
Here is your assignment for Thursday's class:
1) Read Steven Landsburg's "Grade Expectations: Why grade inflation is bad - and what to do about it." http://slate.msn.com/id/33044
2) Watch any or all of the following movies:
Mean Girls -- Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey
Can’t Hardly Wait – Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green
Van Wilder -- Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid
Braveheart – Mel Gibson
Star Wars: Episode IV – Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
While watching the film(s), ask yourself the following question – what about these movies would interest an economist?
Let me clarify. Contrary to popular belief economists are "normal" people (well, not really, but we're not that different from normal people). That is, there are likely many things that economists might find interesting about these films that are unrelated to economics. I am not interested in these things. I am interested in what an economist might find economically interesting in these films. Think about key plot elements or character choices, and ask yourself why these things occur. Is there anything in your explanation that resembles economics to you?
Your mission is to then write a short blurb (a paragraph, a page, whatever you want) about what the interesting economic issues in the film are (as you perceive them) and email it to me (bward@fas) by 11AM on Thursday.
Note - DO NOT STRESS ABOUT THIS IN ANY WAY! I am not going to be evaluating/grading these paragraphs. I just want to know what you thought, and I want to get a sense of what you all think economic questions are, so that I know where we're at. So don't freak out or worry about the fact that you are writing and turning something in (and I know some of you are going to try - I know I might have when I was an undergrad
- but don't this is certainly not worth the cost).
I am assuming that all of you have access to TV/VCR/DVD and can obtain a copy of one of these films from somewhere. If this assumption is incorrect, just let me know, and we can work something out.
Once again, welcome to the course, and I look forward to meeting you all on Thursday.
Here is your assignment for Thursday's class:
1) Read Steven Landsburg's "Grade Expectations: Why grade inflation is bad - and what to do about it." http://slate.msn.com/id/33044
2) Watch any or all of the following movies:
Mean Girls -- Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey
Can’t Hardly Wait – Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green
Van Wilder -- Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid
Braveheart – Mel Gibson
Star Wars: Episode IV – Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
While watching the film(s), ask yourself the following question – what about these movies would interest an economist?
Let me clarify. Contrary to popular belief economists are "normal" people (well, not really, but we're not that different from normal people). That is, there are likely many things that economists might find interesting about these films that are unrelated to economics. I am not interested in these things. I am interested in what an economist might find economically interesting in these films. Think about key plot elements or character choices, and ask yourself why these things occur. Is there anything in your explanation that resembles economics to you?
Your mission is to then write a short blurb (a paragraph, a page, whatever you want) about what the interesting economic issues in the film are (as you perceive them) and email it to me (bward@fas) by 11AM on Thursday.
Note - DO NOT STRESS ABOUT THIS IN ANY WAY! I am not going to be evaluating/grading these paragraphs. I just want to know what you thought, and I want to get a sense of what you all think economic questions are, so that I know where we're at. So don't freak out or worry about the fact that you are writing and turning something in (and I know some of you are going to try - I know I might have when I was an undergrad
- but don't this is certainly not worth the cost).
I am assuming that all of you have access to TV/VCR/DVD and can obtain a copy of one of these films from somewhere. If this assumption is incorrect, just let me know, and we can work something out.
Once again, welcome to the course, and I look forward to meeting you all on Thursday.
// posted by BW @ 9:39 AM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]