Col. Mark A. Bebensee                                                                                                                         Fall, 1999

Course Objective

The goal of this course is to acquaint students with the basic tools of microeconomic analysis and to show how these tools may be used to analyze current business problems. Emphasis will be placed upon (1) learning how to think about economic problems rather than mastering a particular body of economic facts, and (2) understanding economic ideas rather than memorizing a bunch of "crapola."

A textbook "package" containing two books and a CD-ROM is required. You need to buy and USE the following:

        McConnell and Bruce, MICROECONOMICS, 14^th edition
        Walstad and Bingham, Study Guide to Accompany McConnell’s MICROECONOMICS, 14^th ed.
        DiscoverEconÔ 3.0 Software Tutorial

Methods of Evaluation

    1.    There will be three Large Opportunities for Excellence (LOFE’s) plus a comprehensive Final
           Opportunity for Excellence covering material in your texts and in the lectures. The date of each
           LOFE will be announced well in advance.

    2.    Several 15-minute multiple-choice Small Opportunities for Excellence (SOFE’s) will also be given
          throughout the course at unannounced times. These SOFE’s are designed to reward students who
          keep up with reading assignments and to motivate behavioral changes in students who do not. No
          make-ups for these SOFE’s will be offered, so class cuts are therefore costly.

    The relative weights of these activities is as follows:

          Large Opportunities for Excellence 50%
          Small Opportunities for Excellence 20%
          Class Attendance and Participation 10%
          Final Opportunity for Excellence 20%

    Grading is not done on a "curve." Absolute standards for each letter grade are these:

                    90 < A < 100
                    80 < B < 90
                    70 < C < 80
                    60 < D < 70
                    60 or less is F.

Electronic Mail

Each student enrolled in this course will automatically have a VAX account established in his name so that he can receive E-Mail messages. The account names will be assigned before the end of the second week of classes. From time to time we may submit homework assignments using this medium.
 

Instructor

My office is 284 Bond Hall. I will ordinarily be available on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons from 2:00-5:00 p.m. unless I have a committee meeting that takes me out of the office. If you need to see me and those hours are not convenient, please speak to me so we can work out another time. My office phone number 953-5056. My home phone number is 881-4835, and you are welcome to call any time before 10:00 p.m.