Eight years on, we continue to apply lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. A potent teaching tool developed by our economic education team here at the Atlanta Fed is titled Katrina’s Classroom: Financial Lessons from a Hurricane, which focuses on important lessons in financial preparedness.
Our team is updating this important series and has developed innovative tools for the classroom. Each segment in this four-part series will have new lessons and technology-based resources as part of the Classroom Economist project. "Lesson 1: Katrina Strikes" and "Lesson 2: In the Aftermath" have already been revised and are available online. The revisions of the remaining two lessons will be available at the end of September and December, respectively. Lesley Mace, our economic and financial education specialist at the Jacksonville Branch, recently wrote about this new offering in the Atlanta Fed’s online newsletter Extra Credit.
While Katrina’s Classroom was developed for educators, there are other classroom tools for everyone regarding financial responsibility, as well as basic economic facts, recent developments in the national and regional economy, and the Federal Reserve in general. Check out the Atlanta Fed’s Education Resources page for information about all our products, and also be sure to see the even wider range of resources available throughout the Federal Reserve System.
Finally, over the next year we’ll all have a great opportunity to learn more about the Fed and its history as we commemorate the centennial of the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve System was created on December 23, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. In May 1914 the charters for the 12 Reserve Banks were signed, and on November 16, 1914, the Reserve Banks opened for business. The Board of Governors has developed a web page with links to individual Reserve Bank sites that focus on the centennial. Here’s a link to the Atlanta Fed’s centennial page. More information will be posted to these sites throughout 2013 and into 2014.
By Mike Chriszt, a vice president in the Atlanta Fed’s public affairs department