A team of students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won the David Ricardo Division of the 2023 Arkansas Economics Challenge sponsored by Economics Arkansas.
Seniors Ai’Yanna Tombs of North Little Rock and Chelsea Nwankwo of Alexander placed first overall in this year’s competition, which was held at the College of Business at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on March 14. It is the third year in a row a team from ASMSA has won the David Ricardo Division. Both students also received individual awards.
The Arkansas Economics Challenge is the Economics Arkansas version of the National Economics Challenge, the country’s only economics competition of its kind for ninth- through 12th-grade students. It tests micro and macroeconomic principles as well as knowledge of the world economy.
Tombs and Nwankwo placed first in the Overall Grand Prize in the David Ricardo Division and first in the Team Presentation category. Tombs was named the Arkansas Economics Student of the Year. Nwankwo won second place in the Individual Essay Contest. The team advanced to the first round of the National Economics Challenge sponsored by the Council for Economic Education which will be held later this year.
The David Ricardo Division is for first-time economics students. There are three event categories in which students may compete: Team Testing, Team Presentations and Essay.
In the Team Testing category, students have one hour to complete an economics exam focused on key concepts from micro, macro and global economics. Students test individually, and their scores are added together for a team total. Prizes are awarded to the highest scoring individuals and teams.
In the Team Presentations category, students have one hour to create a seven to 10 minute presentation that they present to a team of judges. The theme for this year’s event was the national debt. Students were presented with a scenario where they had control over U.S. discretionary spending. During their presentation, students explained how they would allocate tax dollars and the trade-offs of their decisions.
Students competing in the essay competition submit responses to an essay prompt in advance of the competition. This year’s prompt was to explain the key differences between mandatory and discretionary government spending. Students were asked to consider what changes they would make to national spending if they were a member of Congress.
ASMSA also was represented in the Adam Smith Division by seniors Madison Arenaz, Kiley Barton, Bethany Catron and Talana Small. The team was the 2022 winner of the David Ricardo Division. The Adam Smith Division is for students who are enrolled in an AP course, have taken multiple economics courses or who have participated in a past Arkansas Economics Challenge.