Bringing Forecasting to the Classroom: Our SXSW EDU 2025 Experience

Our presentation, “Student Forecasting: Decision-Making Through Tournament Play,” took place on March 3 and introduced participants to the innovative concept of Student Forecasting Tournaments, a gamified approach designed to teach important decision-making skills, like assessing information and predicting likelihoods. These tournaments give students the opportunity to make predictions (or forecasts!) related to real-world questions about fun topics, such as music, movies, sports, and more. A sample question might be “How much will a certain movie earn during its opening box office weekend?” Students learn various tools and techniques to improve their forecasts, such as using reference classes to find relevant data and considering the outside view to better assess typical outcomes.

In addition to learning about Student Forecasting Tournaments during the interactive session, attendees also participated in hands-on forecasting themselves. By making their own forecasts during the session, they saw firsthand how forecasting tournaments work and learned practical tools and methodologies to implement similar techniques in their classrooms.

Thank you to our presenters from the Alliance—Dave Bruno, Teacher Engagement Manager, and Karina Hernandez, Education Senior Associate and Pilot Project Specialist—as well as Dr. Ivory Hills, Head of School at St. Mark’s School and Alliance Education Advisory Council member. Their expertise enriched the session, providing important perspectives on integrating forecasting tournaments into classrooms and the necessity of improving students’ decision-making skills.