“Let’s Bid!” - A modular activity to promote interest in engineering economy

Abstract This article presents a modular activity designed to promote interest and understanding of engineering economics concepts in a complex environment. Through a competition game, called “Let’s Bid!”, the students are able to understand the relationship between technological characteristics and supply and demand equilibrium in electricity markets, and discuss how uncertainty impacts investments in generation capacity and firm pricing strategies. This innovative teaching method was implemented in middle school, high school, and undergraduate college settings. Each implementation took less 60 minutes, and resulted in a strong student interest and understanding of engineering economics concepts (i.e., supply-demand equilibrium, risk, and markets).