Although Freakonomics wasn't written with an eye toward academia, it has been adopted into many college and high-school curricula. In addition to being the sole textbook for a Senior Honors Thesis Seminar at Berkeley, Freakonomics has been used to teach Public Policy Analysis at Georgetown, Behavioral Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, International Business at American University, Professional Writing at Purdue, Math at Randolph-Macon College, and Public Service Management at NYU. It has also been chosen as a Summer Reading book, required for all incoming freshmen, at several universities, including Georgia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth, and Appalachian State University.

To go along with all this academic activity, HarperCollins has commissioned a Freakonomics Instructor’s Guide and Student’s Guide. These guides were written by S. Clayton Palmer, who teaches at Weber State University and Westminster College of Salt Lake, and J. Lon Carlson of Illinois State University. Because Palmer and Carlson both teach economics, their guides are most directly aimed at that discipline, but they should also work well in English, history, and math classrooms.

Both guides are free. The Student’s Guide can be downloaded here. The Instructor’s Guide, which includes a test bank with both multiple-choice and essay questions, is available to teachers and professors through HarperAcademic. You simply need to visit the HarperAcademic website to register by e-mail for a password and login, which enables you to either download the Instructor’s Guide or receive it by mail on a CD-ROM.