Jay Co. going micro, macro

Elasticity.
Supply and demand.
Product equilibrium.
These are terms being thrown around in practice at Jay County High School.
It’s not preparation for one of the upcoming spring sports seasons, but for the economics team.
Twelve JCHS juniors make up the squad, which will take part in the Indiana Economics Challenge on April 13 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Brickyard Crossing Conference Center.
“It’s a neat experience. The kids have a really good time,” said Tim Millspaugh, who coaches the team along with fellow social studies teacher Paul Szymczak. “(Paul and I), we love economics, so its an opportunity for us to try and get some kids who do well or have some excitement in it to compete. Competition helps a lot.”
The team is in its fourth year after Millspaugh discovered the competition through The Learning Connection, which he describes as a “Facebook for teachers.” He immediately approached Szymczak about the possibility, received approval from then-principal Phil Ford and got started.
The team — Julie Schubert, Cassie Dunmoyer, Levi Hummel, Emma Laux, Robert Myers, Ava Kunkler, Abby Wendel, Matt Blackford, Kyra Braun, Abby Saxman, Megan Wellman and Kylie Osborne — begins practicing twice a week from 7:30 to 8 a.m. about six weeks before the competition. The focus this week was on price elasticity, which measures how much the supply or demand for a product changes the price.
The goal is to prepare the team while keeping the mood light.
“You want to do enough where they can compete, but you want it to be fun,” Millspaugh said.
The state competition, which is run by Indiana Council for Economic Education and is for students who are taking or have taken an economics class, is broken into four sites this year. Teams will compete at Penn High School, Indiana University Southeast and University of Southern Indiana in addition to the Brickyard in Indianapolis.
The opening two rounds are multiple-choice tests about microeconomics and macroeconomics. Four team members take each, with the lowest score getting dropped.

The third round is another multiple choice test on any economics topic, including international economics and current events, with the four team members answering as a group.
Scores are then totaled and the top two teams advance to a quiz bowl-style oral competition for the title. Written test scores from each of the four site winners are compared to determine a state champion, which will advance to the national semifinals just three days later.
Four teams will then advance to the national finals May 16 through 18 in New York.
“I’m really looking forward to it, because I’ve never done anything like this. So it’s going to be a fun learning experience,” said Laux. “I’m used to sports … and not really competing with your mind. … It’s definitely a lot different than sports, a different approach.
“I feel like (the coaches) make it fun too because they’re so into it.”
That enthusiasm for Millspaugh started with former Delta High School wrestling coach Jack Grimaldi, who recommended getting an economics teaching license in addition to history. And it blossomed under professor Alex Tabarrok at Ball State University.
Millspaugh remembers walking into his first economics class — Intro to Microeconomics — and having Tabarrok lay down an intimidating challenge. He told his students he gave no As and few Bs and that there would be a lot of work outside of class.
Though he thought the professor was “insane” at first, Millspaugh decided to take on the challenge.
“And that was my favorite class of any class that I’ve ever had,” he said. “Every day he would start the class with a question, and every single day I came in there I knew the answer. And every single time I was wrong. …
“That challenge … it was just awesome. It’s so exciting. It really grabbed your attention, because you wanted to know why that was correct and why what you thought initially was not.”
It’s that understanding and excitement that Millspaugh and Szymczak want to pass on.
They point out that regardless of occupation, economics impacts life. And their students find themselves realizing that fact in everyday situations.
“It effects everything you do,” said Schubert, who is following in her brother James and sister Leslie’s footsteps as a member of the team. “You just understand how it works. … You go to buy something at Walmart and all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Econ.’”