Staples Wins New York Fed Competition with Paper on “Metaverse Virtualization as a Solution for Climate Change”
NY Fed Press Release:The Federal Reserve Bank of New York today announced the results of this year’s High School Fed Challenge, an academic paper competition in which student teams researched and analyzed an economic theme, then wrote podcast scripts reflecting their research. The selected podcast scripts will be published in this year’s issue of the Journal of Future Economists, which will publish this summer.
The theme of this year’s competition was the economics of climate change. The schools and podcast scripts that will be included in the journal are as follows, listed by school name, in alphabetical order:
Chaminade High School of Mineola, NY; The Drowning Effect of Climate Change: Real Estate Prices and Mortgage Volume Plummet as Sea Levels Rise
Cliffside Park High School of Cliffside Park, NJ; The True Cost of Tourism
Eleanor Roosevelt High School of New York, NY; Eek!onomics: The Economy is Melting!
Glen Rock High School of Glen Rock, NJ; Spilling the Beans About Coffee: A Forecast of the Effects of Climate Change on the Coffee Industry
Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics of New York, NY; Climate Change: A Threat to Poor Communities' Economic Equality
Horace Greeley High School of Chappaqua, NY; Fishy Business: Climate Risks to the Agriculture and Fishing Industries
Kearny High School of Kearny, NJ; Money Talks Podcast
Niskayuna High School of Niskayuna, NY; Climate Change Has an Effect So Real, You Can Taste It: The Impact of Climate Change on Small Businesses Within the Apple, Maple Syrup, and Tomato Industries
Shelton High School of Shelton, CT; Making It Rain: How A Green Future and Healthy Economy Can Coexist
Staples High School of Westport, CT; Metaverse Virtualization as a Solution for Climate Change
Stuyvesant High School of New York, NY; Green Investment and its Impact on Climate Change
Syosset High School of Syosset, NY; Overcoming the Challenges of “Greenwashing” to Promote a Sustainable Economy
Vestal High School of Vestal, NY; Crypto's Climate Crisis
Walt Whitman High School of Huntington Station, NY; Climate Conversations: A Discussion on the Circular Economy
West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North of Plainsboro Township, NJ; Geekonomics: The Federal Reserve System and Climate Change
“The mixture of rigorous scholarship and creativity we saw in this year’s submissions deeply impressed the educators and professional economists who reviewed the entries,” said Heather Daly, director of economic education at the New York Fed. “The selected teams all demonstrated an ability to ask important questions, research those questions collaboratively, and present their findings in a lively and engaging manner.”
The High School Fed Challenge aims to encourage students in ninth to twelfth grade to learn more about economics and promote economics as a subject for study and a career possibility. Students are not required to have studied economics to participate.
From 1995 to 2020, the High School Fed Challenge was conducted as a competition in which teams played the role of monetary policymakers by analyzing economic conditions and making a policy recommendation. Teams traveled to the New York Fed in lower Manhattan for three rounds of elimination competition, each of which was judged by New York Fed employees.
The New York Fed changed the High School Fed Challenge to an academic paper competition in 2021 to encourage broader participation. The theme for each year’s competition is announced in September.
In addition to hosting the High School Fed Challenge, the New York Fed’s economic education team has a host of free resources for educators. The team has drafted worksheets and lesson plans on the flow of money, redlining, and the economic impact of COVID-19; a series of comic books on the economy, available in English and Spanish; and a series of interactive worksheets spotlighting pathbreaking economists. The New York Fed also conducts classroom visits and professional development training for teachers and hosts the College Fed Challenge in the fall.
“We want students to know that economics is open to them as both a field of study and a possible career,” Ms. Daly said. “We see this competition and our other resources as a way to swing open the doors to this important field that impacts their own lives and communities every day.”