For Immediate Release April 7, 2005

For More Information Contact: Diane Brown, 317-274-7711 habrown@iupui.edu

IUPUI to host Economics Competition for High School Students

INDIANAPOLIS - First the NCAA men's opening rounds. Then the women's Final Four. And now the 2005 Indiana Economics Challenge.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis will host the 2005 Economics Challenge featuring Indiana high school students going head to head in a demonstration of their knowledge of a broad array of economic topics. The event will be held on Tuesday, April 12, at International Medical Group, 2960 N. Meridian Street.

Indianapolis is one of three sites for the Economics Challenge. Sections of the statewide competition will also be held April 12, in Mishawaka at Penn High School, 56100 Bittersweet Road; and in New Albany at the IU Southeast University Center. "Game times" are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Indianapolis and Mishawaka, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in New Albany.

At each location four-member teams will compete in either the Adam Smith Division for advanced economics students or the David Ricardo Division for students with one semester or less of general economics or economics-related courses.

"Economics is anything but dismal, as witnessed by those who participate in the Indiana Economics Challenge," said Terri L. Crews, Economics Challenge program coordinator. "Why participate in Econ Challenge? Teachers get to see their hard work pay off; students learn a lot of economics and have fun doing it!"

The IUPUI Center for Economic Education organizes the annual statewide event, now in its seventh and largest year. Forty-six teams from 20 Indiana high schools have registered to compete this year, all hoping to advance to the mid-west regional in April and national competition in May.

In 2004, one team from Carmel High School, a school serviced by the IUPUI Center for Economic Education, took first place nationally in the Adam Smith Division and another Carmel High team was a runner-up in the David Ricardo Division.

Schools represented in this year's competition are: Burris Laboratory School, The Culver Academies; Heritage Junior-Senior High School; MSD of New Durham Township; and Bremen, Carmel, Clay, Elkhart Central, Elkhart Memorial, Goshen, Homestead, Kokomo, Madison Consolidated, North, Penn, Saint Joseph's, South Ripley, West Lafayette, Whiteland Community and Zionsville high schools.

Teams at each site will first compete in three rounds of written, multiple-choice tests covering microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics and current events. Following the written tests, the top two teams in each division at each site will meet for an oral Quiz Bowl event. In each division, the team with the highest scores from among that division's Quiz Bowl winners at Indianapolis, Mishawaka and New Albany will be named the state champion.

First place teams will win $200 and a plaque. Individual team members will receive a medal, and teacher coaches will receive a special award.

The state champions will represent Indiana in the Mid-West Regional Competition on Friday, April 22 in Chicago. The regional winner will advance to the national contest scheduled for May 21-23 in New York.

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