FEE's two new lesson plans - "How Insurance Underwriters Helped Determine the World Baseball Classic Champion" AND "St. Patrick’s Day Gold Rush Trading Game"

Saw this one in my in-box this afternoon - I know it is very short notice if you are wanting to use these with the holiday in question (or with the World Baseball Classic final tomorrow night). But I thought it was still worth featuring in case you want to use either of them "after the fact", and then I will obviously add the new St. Patrick's Day lesson to next year's March holiday resources.

The "World Baseball Classic" lesson is officially part of FEE's "Economic Marvels" weekly series - I featured one of their lessons earlier in 2026 on the "Economics of Tabasco". Like most of the lessons in the series it connects to a video, but in this case it goes right to a student worksheet/activity. Just as a reminder, you need to register with FEE's Learning Center to access the resources - registration is FREE, and they don't flood your inbox with a ton of e-mails.

LESSON #1 - "How Insurance Underwriters Helped Determine the World Baseball Classic Champion" (along with information on the "Economic Marvels" series):

Link to the Learning Center at FEE - https://teachers.fee.org/enrollments

Series Page for "Economic Marvels" (again, may require you be signed in to access) - https://teachers.fee.org/courses/economic-marvels

Video link to go with the lesson (I noted that the link included in the lesson was not working, so I tracked it down to link here) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTAANd2peUo

Sneak Peek (below) of what some elements of the lesson look like (I'm not going to include much, since I want you to visit their website):

This is a pretty quick and straight-forward lesson/activity, but particularly would work well if you need to teach a topic like insurance (in a financial literacy class, for example) and need some way to get students interested in it. It also helps focus students on the reasons most people buy insurance - to protect against catastrophic events - and how much it is worth to have that kind of protection available.

LESSON #2 - "St. Patrick’s Day Gold Rush Trading Game":

This one is more of a traditional "Economic Marvels" style of lesson, with a short video (which I include below), lesson plan for the teacher, copies of all the handouts and resources needed to run the activity, and slides to assist with the in-class presentation. Again, I'm not going to include too much here, but I will start with their video link from the "One Minute Economics" YouTube series:

Holiday lessons page for "Economic Marvels" (again, may require you be signed in to access) - https://teachers.fee.org/pages/holiday

Video link to go with the lesson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3PCjk7YAo0

Sneak Peek (below) of what some elements of the lesson look like (I'm not going to include much, since I want you to visit their website):

Other links related to the lessons/topics described above:

"Aaron Judge Said the World Baseball Classic Is Bigger Than the World Series and He Meant It" (video), Front Office Sports News, Mar 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpHETgrCwbs

"Econ Duel: Fiat Money vs. the Gold Standard" (video), Marginal Revolution (MRU), Dec 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbDZ0ObRXfE

"Gold's Lasting Luster", F&D Magazine (from the International Monetary Fund), Dec 2025, https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/series/analytical-series/golds-lasting-luster

"Pro Sports on the Dole", Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), Feb 1995, https://fee.org/articles/pro-sports-on-the-dole/

"Sporting Chance: An inside look at the challenges of underwriting athletes and influencers", RGA Reinsurance Company, Jun 2024, https://www.rgare.com/knowledge-center/article/sporting-chance--an-inside-look-at-the-challenges-of-underwriting-athletes-and-influencers

"Understanding the Gold Standard: History, Collapse, and Impact on the U.S. Dollar", Investopedia, Nov 2025, https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/gold-standard.asp

"WBC 2026: How insurance mess shaped World Baseball Classic", ESPN, Mar 2026, https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/48112059/mlb-2026-wbc-world-baseball-classic-insurance-faq-trout-puerto-rico-bad-bunny