Beacom School of Business

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Environmental Economics Institute

The HSBC Institute on the Environment and the Economy is an internationally recognized Institute which provides the opportunity to review environmental topics and issues and related solutions from an economics perspective. This new approach for looking at the environment and reaching environmental quality goals is rapidly becoming popular and is currently being used by many groups including the environmental protection agency.

  • The Institute explains how proper incentives, private property, and markets can benefit the environment.
  • Content and instructional methodologies are presented in interesting and grade specific ways.
  • Classroom teachers learn how incorporate the new perspectives into their classrooms.
  • Participants leave the Institute with highly effective new materials and strategies

The Institute is open to K-12 economics, science or social studies teachers and those individuals who work in the field of natural resource management. The last Institute was held in Rapid City in October 2009 and teachers from South Dakota and Florida attended.

Field trips were taken to Spearfish Forest Products and Butler Machinery. At Spearfish Forest Products teachers received information about the ways the company practices sound environmental practices. The teachers were then given a tour of the lumber mill to see how technology has changed the process of lumber and lumber by-products production.

At Butler Machinery teachers learned about the environmental practices of Butler Machinery and Caterpillar. Then teachers were taken allowed to operate several of the CAT machines and also the new simulator Butler uses to train heavy machinery operators.

Patrick Gainey, one of the participants, said: "This workshop provides real world answers to economic questions, and concrete examples that students can comprehend." Steve Hammerman commented that The FTE program set in front of us has been found to be exceptional. Not only am I leaving with a better environmental focus, but a better basic understanding of economic principles."

SDCEE is working to obtain a grant to conduct another Environmental Economics Institute and will post the dates as soon as funding is received. For information regarding resources for teaching about environmental economics, please contact Lynne Roach at lynne.roach@usd.edu.

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