Structure and Rules

Nebraska Economics Challenge

A. General Structure

1. Team Divisions

a. There shall be two divisions: David Ricardo and Adam Smith.

b. The David Ricardo division includes teams of students enrolled in one-semester (or less) general economics courses or courses which include introductory economic concepts (social studies, business, personal finance, etc.). The course must be taught by a secondary teacher.

c. The Adam Smith division includes teams of students enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP Micro, AP Macro, or AP Micro and Macro), International Baccalaureate (pre-IB and IB), honors, two-semester, or any other advanced courses in economics (including courses taught by a secondary teacher where students earn college credit). The course must be taught by a secondary teacher.

d. Any team containing one or more students enrolled in a course listed in A.1.c. must play in the Adam Smith division.

e. Teams shall only compete against other teams in their own division.

2. Team Composition

a. Teams shall be comprised of four (4) members at the regional and national levels.

b. Competing with only three (3) members, if necessary, is possible and permissible. Competing with five (5) members is permissible at the state (Nebraska) level only.

c. All members of a team must be from the same public, private, or home-based school.

d. A school which qualifies for regional and/or national competition may reconstitute the members of its team prior to the competition. Students must, however, meet the the general student eligibility conditions in A.3., as well as, the eligibility conditions for the division in which the school qualified (see A.1.).

3. Student Eligibility

a. Students must be enrolled for credit in a qualifying high school course (see A.1.b and A.1.c.) at some time during the 2004-2005 academic year.

b. Students who have taken or are taking economics or economics-related courses for college credit from a post-secondary instructor are not eligible to compete.

c. Students who have taken more than one semester of economics or an economics-related course at any time must compete in the Adam Smith division. Students who are in their second semester of any economics or economics-related course must compete in the Adam Smith division.

d. Home-schooled students must compete in the Adam Smith division.

4. Rules Committee

a. There shall be a rules committee comprised of each of the four regional coordinators, a representative from the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE), and one state Council representative appointed by NCEE.

b. The rules committee shall only be responsible for rules compliance at the regional and national level competitions.

c. Questions and grievances should be sent to the chair of the rules committee.

d. All decisions of the rules committee are final.

B. Contest Format

1. There shall be three initial rounds of competition (Rounds I-III).

First tie-breaker: team score in Round III, second tie-breaker: total team score in Rounds I and II counting the scores of all four team members (not just the top three), final tie-breaker: quiz-bowl competition tie-breaker (see B.7.b.).

b. In the first two rounds each member competes individually and the team score in each round is the sum of the top three individual scores.

c. In the third round members compete as a team and submit one answer sheet.

d. Each division shall have its own set of tests for these rounds.

2. Scoring in Rounds I-III is based on the following system: +10 points for each correct response, -5 points for each incorrect response, and 0 points for no response.

3. The score on the Round III test will be multiplied by three so that this round is weighted equally with each of the first two rounds (Rounds I and II).

4. The content covered in Rounds I through III is as follows: Round I: Microeconomics, Round II: Macroeconomics, Round III: International Economics and Current Events.

5. The two highest scoring teams in each division after Rounds I-III advance to Round IV.

First tie-breaker: team score in Round III, second tie-breaker: total team score in Rounds I and II counting the scores of all four team members (not just the top three), final tie-breaker: quiz-bowl competition tie-breaker (see B.7.b.).

6. Round IV has a quiz-bowl format covering all topics in economics.

a. One student on each team is designated as the spokesperson for that team. Only responses from the designated spokesperson are considered official.

b. One point is awarded for each question answered correctly by a team.

c. Team members may buzz in at any time a question is being read, however, should they buzz in before the entire question has been read, they will have to answer based solely on the information they have heard up to that point.

d. Once a team member has buzzed in, the team has 15 seconds to consult and have a response given by its spokesperson.

e. If an incorrect response is given, the other team will have the opportunity to hear the entire question and then have 15 seconds to respond.

7. Round IV is over as soon as one team leads by more points than there are questions remaining.

a. A maximum of 30 questions will be asked.

b. In the event of a tie after 30 questions, the first team to correctly answer a tie- breaking question will be declared the winner.

8. Use of Support Materials

a. The use of books, notes, calculators or other support materials is not allowed during the competition.

b. Students will be allowed a pencil and a piece of scratch paper in all rounds.