The Framework shows students the argument. The Concepts give them the language. The Civic Labs are where they enter the argument themselves — by investigating a live economic decision in their own community and taking a position they can defend.
Most economics is taught as settled fact. Real economic life is a sequence of contested decisions with no answer key. A Civic Lab hands students one such decision — a real one, unfolding now, in a real place — and asks them to do the work a citizen actually has to do: gather the data, talk to the people affected, state the strongest version of every side, and then decide. Not what to think. How to think — on a question that matters.
Both labs begin with a consequential decision unfolding now in New York City. Students encounter the issue, investigate competing claims, listen to people who experience it differently, and create public work that a real audience can answer.
Should a city build and own a grocery store? Students investigate the public plan, neighborhood food economy, real money, and genuine disagreement.
New York City is deciding what role artificial intelligence should play in public education. Students should not merely be governed by it. They should help shape it.
Each lab is a complete, ready-to-run package built on the same structure — so once an educator has run one, they can run any of them. The shared research tools carry across every lab; only the issue changes.
An eight-beat investigation of a live, contested choice — with verified data, the players, and the genuine disagreement laid out fairly, every side steelmanned.
Short companion readings that give students the history and economics they need to understand what is actually at stake before they take a position.
Printable, photocopier-ready instruments — interview guides, surveys, data sheets, a position worksheet — so students do genuine research, not worksheets.
An educator evaluates the curriculum on a page like this one: calm, complete, rigorous. But the surface a student actually works in is built differently — brighter, bolder, rooted in the place the lab is about. The shift in feel is deliberate: it marks the move from studying a decision to investigating one.
Step into either live issue to see what students and educators can use now.
Explore food affordability → Explore AI in schools →