Ethan McDonagh and Andrew Leong have won the Bank of Canada Museum’s 2026 Award for Excellence in Teaching Economics. McDonagh is a Wilfrid Laurier University student completing a practicum at Northbrae Public School in London, Ontario. Leong teaches at Prince of Wales Secondary School in Vancouver, British Columbia.
They were chosen from nominations across Canada for lessons that helped students connect economics to contemporary issues. “What impressed the selection committee was how intentionally these lessons were designed for real-world understanding,” said Deputy Governor Sharon Kozicki. “Whether students were visualizing income distribution with beads or ‘travelling’ through global economies, the learning was active, inquiry-based and grounded in evidence. That’s what great economics education looks like.”
Ethan McDonagh (Grade 6, London, ON)
McDonagh designed an inquiry-based Grade 6 lesson that used coloured beads as data to explore income distribution, the value of labour and fairness. Working in pairs, students allocated 100 beads across 10 professions to show what they believed people should earn, then combined their results into a visual model. McDonagh then introduced gold beads representing actual Canadian income distribution for the same professions. Students compared their “should earn” models with the real data by graphing the two and calculating mean, median and mode. Using the poverty line as a reference point, students then had a rich discussion about basic needs and fairness. The class concluded with an $8 million redistribution challenge that asked students to defend their decisions.
Andrew Leong (Grade 12, Vancouver, BC)
Leong created a gamified project, called the Macroeconomic Venture Passport, that helps Grade 12 students learn macroeconomics by “travelling” through eight global economies and earning passport stamps. Each stop uses hands-on activities and simulations to explore real issues shaping today’s economies—such as artificial intelligence and automation in Japan, deforestation in the Amazon and Canada’s 2% inflation target. Students also tackled fiscal trade-offs through a budget-balancing game, seeing how policy choices can affect debt and everyday costs. By blending storytelling, data and mini-challenges, Leong helped students connect abstract macroeconomic concepts to daily life and understand Canada’s place in an interconnected global economy.
Each winner receives a trophy along with a personal cash prize of $1,000 and another $1,000 for their school.
Nominations for next year’s award will open in early 2027.
Notes to editors
- The Bank of Canada Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, explains how the Bank sets monetary policy, promotes a sound financial system, issues Canada’s bank notes, acts as fiscal agent for the Government of Canada and supervises Canada’s retail payments system.
- The Museum supports teachers and students through free school programs, lesson plans and activities available Learn page.
- For more information about the Museum and its services, visit the website.
