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Shaker Wins Fourth District Federal Challenge Title For the second consecutive year, Shaker Heights High School has won the Fourth District title in the Federal Reserve Challenge. The team of Beth Dolinsky, Austin Frank, Alex Kolb, Jon Munetz, and Gordon Scott made the winning presentation on the state of the economy and monetary policy, beating out teams from throughout the District covering Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and Eastern Kentucky. They and their coach, Shaker economics teacher Diana Jones, will travel to Washington at the end of April for the national competition before the Fed’s Board of Governors. Last year, Shaker won the first-ever Fourth District Fed Challenge, becoming one of nine teams from across the nation to make it to the finals in Washington and bringing home a total of $35,000 in individual and team prize money. Of that total, $11,000 was used to equip an economics computer lab at the High School. “The kids put in enormous amounts of time after school and on the weekends,” Jones said. “They knew all their business indicators: unemployment, gross domestic product, trade deficit, consumer confidence.” “What’s really important is having the kids involved at that level and dealing with real-life economic problems in a very sophisticated way,” Jones added. “They have done intensive research, developed Power Point presentations, gained experience in the utilization and analysis of statistics. It’s a wonderful learning experience.” The lab is being used by economics classes to follow the stock market online, tracking daily fluctuations in the market and economy. In addition to covering the day-to-day fluctuations in the stock market, Jones’s courses also cover economic theory and cultural influences on various economies. The offerings include Advanced Placement Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, both college-level courses; and Comparative Economics, an honors course. “My program has to be current all the time,” Jones said. “The computers allow us to be current.” Jones’s students use a computer program on the Internet that’s based on the real-life stock market to follow the ups and downs of their would-be investments. In the classroom, her students compete in teams to see which can earn the most money. “Usually my winning teams at least double their money,” she said. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland – Corporate Communications and Community Reinvestment
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