Tuesday November 4^th kicked off the Economics Challenge week. Andrew Tillman and his AP Micro Economics class competed against their peers in a series of challenges to review for their upcoming test. The goal of this competition week was to review the concepts of Perfect Competition, Monopolistic Competition, Monopolies, and Oligopolies. On the first day of challenge week, students formed teams and created a team name and logo.

On Wednesday, Mr. Tillman created a demonstration that displayed how corporations always try to maximize their profits and do what is best for them with no regard for the market as a whole. He did this by making each team pick colors. If each team picked red, all got five points, but if not everyone picked red, the people who picked red got zero points while the teams that didn’t pick red got 2 points.  This is called the prisoners dilemma and is an important concept in economics and game theory.

On Thursday, teams had to write everything they knew about all of the types of competitions on a floor tile near the 800 building. Each team got a point for each fact, and this drastically increased the scores.

On Friday, students competed in the QR code scavenger hunt. Teams ran across the school and tried to find the answers to questions posted on QR codes across the campus. Whichever team had the highest combined total of points was the winner of the competition week and won a chance to draw a mystery prize.

Tillman believes that the challenge week is a good review for the students before the upcoming test.

“It’s a different review of product markets that takes place outside the classroom, it’s a way of practicing things that we have learned inside the classroom,” Tillman said.

The economics challenge week has become a tradition for all Micro Economics classes and has provided for a good review of all the concepts for the upcoming test.  Senior Danny Yudman agrees with Tillman’s assessment of the week and believes that the week is beneficial to Micro students.

“The Challenge week provided a good review of what we learned so far and competitions for us to win,” Yudman said.

The various challenges allowed students to bond in teams and gain experience with working in groups.  Yudman was part of the winning team and believes that the group bond was integral to their success.

“We won the competition using good teamwork and because we knew the stuff,” Yudman said.

Senior Doniya Milani believes that the economic challenge week was good because it allowed Tillman to teach to different styles of learning.

“ I believe that the challenge week is beneficial because it was a hands on experience, so it got to students who were hands on learners,” Milani said.

Senior Anne Tolson enjoyed the outdoor aspect of the challenge week.

“It was good practice to go outside and work on the tasks,” Tolson said. “The competitions resembled the different economic competitions and that was great.”