How better to teach youth about economics and give them the skills for lifelong learning than with chocolate?
This year, the Eastern Kentucky University Center for Economic Education and Ruth Hunt Candy Co. are celebrating 10 years of partnering to offer a “Chocolate Economics” professional development workshop to teachers to help them integrate economics content into grades K-6 classrooms.
Approximately 200 teachers from across central, eastern, and southern Kentucky have traveled to the Ruth Hunt facility in Mt. Sterling for the workshop, which has been held every June for the past decade. Dr. Cynthia Harter, director of the EKU Center for Economic Education, and her colleagues, Lisa Saylor and Cindy West, have presented the workshop, which focuses on the Chocolate Economics curriculum (by M&M Publishing) with relevant updates and includes a tour of the Ruth Hunt facility as well as candy samples provided by Ruth Hunt staff.
Ruth Hunt Owner Larry Kezele said the workshop is “just the type of event for which the conference room was intended and provides the company a great opportunity to partner with educators.”
Manager Tobby Moore noted the “interesting twist” that combining chocolate and business provides, as well as the integration of the company’s history as a tie to Kentucky entrepreneurs.
Harter said the workshop is a “favorite of teachers, and the setting at Ruth Hunt really brings the curriculum to life!”
Teachers are invited to attend the annual workshop next June. Curriculum publishers are working on an updated edition of the curriculum, so participants can expect new activities and applications.
Follow the EKU Center for Economic Education on Facebook or Twitter (@ekueconed) for further details.