As a teacher I should say I have read the actual book Freakonomics. Alas, I have not, though I have seen the film based on the best selling book. In recent years, the creators of Freakonomics have begun publishing podcasts, as well as creating their stellar website. The basic idea of Freakonomics is taking weird/interesting economics questions and using data to solve and/or analyze them.
In the past, I have used part of their documentary about how names of children can affect a person's life. The students loved the 10 minute video and we had a great discussion about race, stereotypes, and the concept of "opportunities". Here is a sample this great video...
As we get closer to the end of the school year, I try to create interesting lessons to keep students interested in coming to class rather than ditching school for the local mall. The Freakonomics website has lots of free materials, though you may want to invest in purchasing the DVD, though if you have Netflix, you may be able to stream the documentary!
Another video that will deftinitely motivate your students to participate in a class discussion and/or writing prompt is whether students should be paid to earn good grades. You can show this 3 minute video to you students and see where the class goes...
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