NCEE | Virtual Economics

The following is a list of the lessons available on Virtual Economics®: Version 3.0. There are 1270 lessons included on the CD. Click the lesson titles to learn more about where the lessons come from.

Lesson 1 - The Problem of the Homeless Salmon
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
This lesson introduces the principles of EcoDetection, a key element of EcoDetectives. By reference to the principles of EcoDetection, the lesson describes the problem of declining wild salmon populations and calls upon students t...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 2 - Why Do Free Goods Disappear Quickly?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The teacher conducts a class discussion focused on how people tend to take better care of things they own and why they may be careless with things they do not own.
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 3 - Why Do We Have So Few Whales and So Many Chickens?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students participate in a classroom simulation that demonstrates the tragedy of the commons. Next, the simulation is altered by an introduction of property rights, and the simulation outcome changes. Then the students solve th...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 4 - The Environment: Who Loves Ya, Baby?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students participate in a simulation activity that illustrates how incentives influence the behavior of people trying to earn income. In a variation of the simulation activity, they observe the effects of rule changes. When th...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 5 - Cleaning the Lake Marginally
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students examine an example of what not to do while drinking water on a long hike. They use the concept of marginal analysis in analyzing the example. Then they examine the marginal costs and benefits of an environmental clean...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 6 - How Can We Help Endangered Species?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students are presented with information about the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and examples of species appearing on the protected list. They examine the history of species protection under the ESA. They are asked to imagine ho...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 7 - Can Incentives Protect Endangered Species?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students discuss ways to protect fish placed on display in a science class. By viewing visuals, they learn about key provisions of the Endangered Species Act. They role-play international commissioners and make recommendations...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 8 - The Costs and Benefits of Having Children
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students analyze data about rich and poor countries in order to examine the impact of economic wealth on population growth. Then they read a letter written by a Wisconsin farmer in 1854 regarding the work done by children in h...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 9 - Why Do Oil Reserves Keep Increasing?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students view a visual regarding oil reserves and consumption. They calculate how many years it will take us to run out of oil at a given rate of consumption. The teacher then explains that the numbers on the visual were from ...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 10 - Why Drive When You Can Ride?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students examine data showing that many Americans prefer to drive their own automobiles rather than use mass public transit. They analyze this preference by reference to the costs and benefits of driving. In light of the exter...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 11 - If We Grow More Food, Won't We Degrade the Environment?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students examine evidence about the impact of modern farming. They analyze the costs and benefits of modern agricultural practices, noting that the benefits derive from improved productivity. They assess the possibility that c...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 12 - Recycling or Landfill Disposal: What Is the Best Way to Protect the Environment?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students investigate four proposed recycling programs (curbside recycling, newspaper recycling, recycling of aluminum cans, and banning disposable diapers from landfills) and decide whether the programs should be adopted or no...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 13 - Forest Fires: Natural Catastrophes or Monsters We Have Created?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students examine information about the ongoing threat of catastrophic fires facing many forests in the United States, especially national forests in the West. They analyze possible explanations for the threat posed by fires an...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 14 - How Could We Cut Back on the Garbage We Produce?
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
Students discuss the concept of price and investigate how prices can influence people's decisions to buy groceries and generate garbage, depending on what sort of price system is used. Then students apply what they know about pric...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 15 - How Private Efforts Can Improve Environmental Quality
Economics and the Environment: Ecodetectives
The students examine case studies showing how various uses of private property affect environmental quality. They analyze these cases in order to identify conditions under which private property ownership and the profit motive cre...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 1 - Why Insurance and How Does It Work?
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Virtual Economics: Insurance Lessons
This lesson uses readings and group work to describe the risks that are a part of everyone's life. It then elaborates on five ways to handle risk. Two of these ways are to share and transfer risk, which is the purpose of insurance...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 2 - The Basics of Life Insurance
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Virtual Economics: Insurance Lessons
This lesson focuses on basic information that everyone should know and be able to apply when they purchase life insurance. This knowledge is especially important for recent high school graduates who are approached to buy life insu...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 3 - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Automobile Insurance
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Virtual Economics: Insurance Lessons
The topic of automobile insurance is important to most high school students because of their interest in owning and operating a car or truck. But many teenagers think vehicle insurance is esoteric and mysterious. This lesson provi...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 4 - Why Renter's Insurance?
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Virtual Economics: Insurance Lessons
This lesson focuses on a question that many of your students will face in college and/or in their first job as they live in apartments: Should they buy renter's insurance? Many students do not know what renter's insurance covers o...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 1: Stock Prices
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Learning, Earning and Investing: Grades 4-5 Lessons
Newspaper and Internet listings of stock prices provide important information for investors. Gathering and understanding information found in the stock listings is an important life skill, and also a useful skill for students part...
Grade: 3-5

Lesson 2: Savings Accounts and U.S. Savings Bonds
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Learning, Earning and Investing: Grades 4-5 Lessons
People who want to save money can do so in various ways. One method is to use a savings account; another is to buy U. S. Savings Bonds. In this lesson, the students learn about these two methods of saving.
Grade: 3-5

Lesson 3: What Happens When a Bank Makes a Loan?
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Learning, Earning and Investing: Grades 4-5 Lessons
The students play roles in a simulation activity designed to show how bank loans made to individuals can have an impact on others in the community. Then, working in small groups, the students analyze other hypothetical loans, usin...
Grade: 3-5

Lesson 4: Why Do People Go to School?
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Learning, Earning and Investing: Grades 4-5 Lessons
The students look at a simple chart relating education level with average annual income. From the data the students generalize that people with more education usually earn more income. They learn that human capital refers to the k...
Grade: 3-5

Lesson 1 - What Are Productive Resources?
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students become economic detectives and try to determine how economists categorize productive resources. Working in groups, the students sort cards into categories they create and then specify the characteristi...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 2 - How Much Depends on Where
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students learn how the geography of a country can influence where goods are produced. The students use a map of a fictitious country to enhance their map skills. They derive geographic information from the map,...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 3 - Economics and Population Demographics
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students use data and graphs to analyze and compare the populations and standards of living for different countries. The students begin by building a population pyramid of the children in their families over th...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 4 - Why Do People Move?
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students learn that costs and benefits influence people's decisions about moving. The students review U.S. Census data to discuss possible reasons why people move. They analyze the costs and benefits of moving....
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 5 - Economic Freedom: How Important Is It?
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students participate in activities that help them understand the correlation between economic freedom and a country's standard of living. First the students decide whether they agree or disagree with rules and ...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 6 - Joining Together That Which Has Drifted Apart
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students learn about the physical forces that move people on different continents further apart and the economic forces that bring them together. They read about the formation and breakup of two great continent...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 7 - What a Difference a Tool Makes!
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students use problemsolving skills to make decisions about using productive resources. The students observe a simple production activity that gradually requires the use of more and more tools. After a short dis...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 8 - Ideas That Changed the World
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students learn about productivity and its connection to the standard of living. They learn about inventions that changed the world. The students make predictions about recent inventions and the impact of these ...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 9 - The Cost of Ignoring Economics and Geography
Middle School World Geography: Focus on Economics
In this lesson, the students learn how geography affects the costs of achieving an environmental goal. They remodel the classroom using a map showing several companies located along a river. They participate in a simulation that s...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 1 - Why Save?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
Following an introduction that defines saving, the students discuss the idea of "paying yourself first" and the reasons why people save. After reporting on their smallgroup discussions, the students simulate the accumulation of si...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 2 - Investors and Investments
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
In this lesson the students explore different types of investments, some of which are unconventional, in order to grasp the basic idea that investment involves trading off present benefits for future satisfaction. The students als...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 3 - Invest in Yourself
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
To explore the concept that people invest in themselves through education, the students work in two groups and participate in a mathematics game. Both groups are assigned mathematics problems to solve. One group is told about a sp...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 4 - What Is a Stock?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students work in small groups that represent households. Each household answers mathematics and economics questions. For each correct answer, a household earns shares of stock. At the end of the game, the groups that answered ...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 5 - Reading the Financial Pages: In Print and Online
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students learn how to read and understand information presented in the financial pages of newspapers and online sources. Working in pairs, they examine entries for stocks, mutual funds and corporate bonds. They participate in ...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 6 - What Is a Bond?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
In this lesson the students learn what bonds are and how bonds work. They learn the basic terminology related to bonds and participate in a simulation activity aimed at showing that bonds are certificates of indebtedness, similar ...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 7 - What Are Mutual Funds?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students form class investment clubs that work much in the way mutual funds do. They invest $3,000 (300 shares at $10 a share) in up to six stocks. One year later they revalue their shares and determine whether a share in thei...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 8 - How to Buy and Sell Stocks and Bonds
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
In this lesson the students learn about the financial markets in which stocks and bonds are bought and sold. They read about the high transaction costs that individual investors would experience if there were no financial markets....
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 9 - What Is a Stock Market?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students are introduced to the key characteristics of a market economy through a brief simulation and a discussion of several examples drawn from their own experiences. Then they learn about differences among the three major s...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 10 - The Language of Financial Markets
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students work in small groups to make flash cards to display terms commonly used in financial markets. The terms are grouped in five categories: Buying and Selling in the Market; Exchanges and Indexes; People in Financial Mark...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 11 - Financial Institutions in the U.S. Economy
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students participate in a brief trading activity to illustrate the role institutions play in bringing savers and borrowers together, thus channeling savings to investment. The students discuss financial institutions, such as b...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 12 - Building Wealth over the Long Term
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students are introduced to the case of Charlayne, a woman who becomes, accidentally, a millionaire. Charlayne's success, the students learn, was unexpected, but not a miracle. It can be explained by three widely understood rul...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 13 - Researching Companies
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students apply an economic way of thinking to gathering information regarding securities. They learn that the cost of acquiring information must be compared to the anticipated benefit the information will provide. The students...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 14 - Credit: Your Best Friend or Your Worst Enemy?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students do an exercise that shows how credit can be their worst enemy. They learn how quickly credit-card balances can grow and how long it can take to pay off a credit-card debt. They also learn that credit can be their best...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 15 - Why Don't People Save?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students examine risk-oriented behavior, considering why people often engage in behavior that is dangerous or unhealthy. They are introduced to the concept of cost/benefit analysis and asked to apply what they learn to questio...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 16 - What We've Learned
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
This lesson features a game in which the students review key vocabulary words and concepts presented in earlier lessons. The game is called Flyswatter Review. The teacher divides the class into two teams. Using transparencies, the...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 17 - How Financial Institutions Help Businesses Grow
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students read two case studies about the financing of businesses, contrasting modern approaches with approaches from the 1870s. Using transparencies, the students discuss the advantages of the corporate form of business organi...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 18 - How Are Stock Prices Determined?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students participate in a stock market simulation that shows how the price of a share of stock is determined in a competitive market. Then they analyze what happened in the simulation to learn how stock prices are discovered t...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 19 - The Role of Government in Financial Markets
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students read background information about why the U.S. government has become involved in the regulation of financial markets. Then they work in small groups on five hypothetical cases illustrating common violations in the fin...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 20 - The Stock Market and the Economy: Can You Forecast the Future?
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students study a graph that illustrates the phases of a typical business cycle. They also examine how stock prices affect overall consumption and investment in the economy. After studying The Conference Board's 10 leading econ...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 21 - Lessons from History: Stock Market Crashes
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students analyze information about the stock market crash of 1929 and the stock market crash of 1987. They use the information to make posters about the crashes, highlighting what happened during and after the crashes, causes ...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 22 - Investing Internationally: Currency Value Changes
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
The students examine the costs and benefits of international investing. They study the case of an investor named Lizzy who buys shares in a European mutual fund. Lizzy is surprised to learn that, while her international investment...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 23 - Investing Involves Decision Making
Learning, Earning and Investing: High School
This lesson provides an overall review and an opportunity for students to apply many of the concepts stressed in earlier lessons. The students examine different sorts of risk that come with investments. They are introduced to a fi...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Section 1: Income and Choices
Your Credit Counts Challenge: Trainer's Guide
Participants will understand the importance of spending less than they receive. Participants will understand how competition based on productivity determines the wages and salaries that people receive. Participants will analyze ...
Grade: 9-12

Section 2: Financial Institutions
Your Credit Counts Challenge: Trainer's Guide
Participants identify the advantages and disadvantages of using financial services from alternative financial institutions and services from mainstream banks. Participants identify the services provided by mainstream financial in...
Grade: 9-12

Section 3: Managing Credit
Your Credit Counts Challenge: Trainer's Guide
Participants will identify the advantages and disadvantages of using credit. Participants will recognize what credit is, what it costs, and the basic steps involved in obtaining credit. Participants will identify the key feature...
Grade: 9-12

Section 4: A Roof Over Your Head
Your Credit Counts Challenge: Trainer's Guide
Participants will understand the benefits and drawbacks of homeownership. Participants will understand the process of buying a home, from before house-hunting to closing and occupancy. Participants will understand the risks of s...
Grade: 9-12

Section 5: Strategies for Wealth Building
Your Credit Counts Challenge: Trainer's Guide
Participants will understand the concept of net wealth and how the decisions they make can cause their own net wealth to increase or decrease. Participants will explain why an early start in saving and investing increases a house...
Grade: 9-12

Section 6: The Basics of a Market Economy
Your Credit Counts Challenge: Trainer's Guide
Participants will identify the characteristics of people who build wealth. Participants will recognize the primary features of a market economy including voluntary exchange, private ownership, a price system, the profit motive, c...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 1: Lesson 1 - The Economic Way of Thinking
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Advanced Placement Economics has thousands of details that can confuse students. The students need a framework to organize these details. This lesson acquaints the students with basic economic concepts and methodology. It begins w...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 1: Lesson 2 - Scarcity, Opportunity Cost and Production Possibilities Curves
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson deals with opportunity cost, one of the most important concepts in economics. Start with a lecture on scarcity and production possibili-ties curves. Then reinforce the lecture by using Activity 2, which develops the ce...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 1: Lesson 4 - Practice in Applying Economic Reasoning
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson reinforces some of the economic-rea-soning ideas that were introduced in Lesson 1. It provides practice in applying economic reasoning to a wide variety of conventional and unconven-tional situations. Activity 7 emphas...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 1 - The Law of Demand
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In this lesson, the students learn about the law of demand. They first learn that a demand curve is downward sloping and then analyze why it is down-ward sloping. Finally, they find out which factors other than the price of a prod...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 2 - Understanding Supply
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Prices are determined by demand and supply. This lesson examines the factors that affect supply; these factors are called the determinants of supply.The students should also understand the difference between changes in supply and ...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 4 - Elasticity of Demand and Supply
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Knowledge of price elasticity of demand and supply helps the students understand how businesses make pricing decisions and how governments make decisions on taxation. These exercises on elasticity become increasingly complex. To a...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 5 - Price Ceilings and Floors
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Legislators often have been dissatisfied with the outcomes of free markets. The invisible hand is not good enough for them, so they mandate prices that are lower or higher than the equilibrium price. A price ceiling is a legal max...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 6 - Complex Application Questions in Supply and Demand
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson requires the students to apply price theory to a variety of situations. Learning the laws of economics is not enough. Problem solving concen-trates the mind and forces the students to really understand an economic conc...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 1 - An Introduction to Market Structure
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson introduces the students to the kinds of market structures they will be studying during the next several weeks. Because most actual mar-kets do not fit the assumptions of the perfectly competitive market model, it is ne...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 2 - The Costs of Production
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson helps the students understand the relationship between output and input and ulti-mately to understand several cost concepts. This lesson is critical if the students are to grasp what follows. Although there are four ty...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 3 - Perfect Competition in the Short Run and the Long Run
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson is designed to help the students under-stand the profit-maximizing output of the perfectly competitive firm. Any firm maximizes profits by producing at the quantity where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. For a pe...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 4 - The Monopoly Firm
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In Lesson 3, the students learned why perfect competition leads to an optimum allocation of resources in the long run. They found that even though the perfect competitor's goal is to maximize profits, in the long run the perfect c...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 5 - Regulating Monopoly: Antitrust Policy in the Real World
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Because a monopoly produces an inefficient level of output, government often tries to regulate monopoly or break up a monopoly into several firms. Without using graphs, Activity 35 illustrates why unregulated monopolies have undes...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 6 - Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Perfect competition and monopoly give us some of the basic tools needed to understand how product price and output are determined. Although they simplify reality, perfect competition and monopoly identify conditions that affect co...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 7 - Analyzing Market Structure
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson helps the students apply their knowl-edge of market structure to conventional and unconventional situations. Activity 42 can be assigned as homework or completed in groups. It is good practice for the complex applicati...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 1 - An Introduction to Factor Markets
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Students can understand factor or resource markets better if they gain an overall perspective before getting into the details of marginal productivity theory. In this lesson, the students learn that a firm is both a seller in prod...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 2 - How Resource Prices Are Determined: Marginal Productivity Theory
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Marginal productivity theory is the heart of the factor market unit. Students must master the de-tails of marginal productivity and complex termi-nology such as marginal physical product, marginal revenue product, marginal resourc...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 4 - Economic Rent and Return for Other Factors of Production
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
The factor-market questions on the AP test will place the heaviest emphasis on labor markets because labor accounts for almost 75 percent of payments to factors of production. However, there also may be questions on payments to ot...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 5 - Analyzing Factor-Market Concepts
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson helps the students to apply their knowl-edge of factor markets to conventional and uncon-ventional situations. Activity 51 can be assigned as homework or completed in groups. It is good practice for the complex applica...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 1 - Public vs. Private Goods
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In the United States, most economic decisions are made in the marketplace through the interaction of buyers and sellers. Some goods and services, how-ever, can be provided only by government. The students should know the criteria ...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 2 - When Markets Fail
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Some government intervention in the economy is designed to remedy problems arising from third-party costs and benefits of private activities or transactions. Students who understand third-party effects, often called externalities,...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 3 - When Government Fails
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Lessons 1 and 2 stress the economic functions of government, with particular emphasis on market failures. This lesson deals with government failure and provides balance in evaluating the role of government. Throughout their educat...
Grade: 9-12

Microeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 4 - Efficiency, Equity and the Effects of Government Policies
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Previous lessons have examined the role or size of government. This unit looks at the distribution of income and the effects of government policies to change it. The controversy weighs efficiency against equity. Markets work. In a...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 1: Lesson 2 - Demand
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson introduces the market system. Demand is half of a market and a demand schedule represents the quantities that people are willing and able to buy at alternative prices. The demand curve is a graphical representation of ...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 1: Lesson 3 - Supply
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Lesson 2 introduced demand. This lesson introduces supply, the other half of the market system. A supply schedule represents the quantities that firms are willing and able to supply at alternative prices. A supply curve is a graph...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 1: Lesson 4 - Equilibrium Price and Quantity
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In this lesson we bring the two sides of the market - demand and supply - together to determine the equilibrium price and quantity. The students should understand that unless there are forces operating to change supply or demand, ...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 1: Lesson 5 - Elasticity
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In many economic situations, producers and policy makers want to know more than simply the direc-tion in which price or quantity will move. The law of demand tells producers that if price increases, the quantity demanded will decr...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 1 - Macroeconomics and the Circular Flow
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson defines macroeconomics, presents the important macroeconomic questions and explains the different sectors of a macroeconomic model of the economy. The circular flow model shows the household sector, the business sector...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 2 - Macroeconomic Goals and GDP
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
The goals of U.S. macroeconomic policy makers are captured in two laws: the Employment Act of 1946 and the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978 (Humphrey-Hawkins Act). The 1946 law committed the federal government to ma...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 3 - Price Indexes and Inflation
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
At various points in the economic history of the United States, inflation has been a major economic problem. The high inflation rates of the late 1960s and 1970s led to the severe recession of the early 1980s. This experience has ...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 4 - Unemployment
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Unemployment is always a major economic issue. Economic history seems to show that there is a short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment. Understanding the types of unemployment is essential to analyzing unemployment r...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 2: Lesson 5 - Business Cycles
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
The study and control of business cycles are the heart of macroeconomics. The discipline of macroeconomics started as business cycle theory. The business cycle is a problem because of the by-products of output fluctuations: unem...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 1 - Keynesian Model
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson establishes fundamental macro concepts. The Keynesian model is the simplest macro model and is the starting point from the national income accounting identity: GDP = C + I + G + NX. The lesson describes the equilibrium...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 2 - Investment
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In the last lesson, the focus was on a simple Keynesian model of the economy and consumption. In this lesson, the determinants of investment - spending by businesses to replace or increase the capital stock - are described. In con...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 3 - Aggregate Demand
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Aggregate demand represents the sum of consumption (C), investment (I), government expenditures (G) and net exports (NX). The quantity of real GDP demand is the total of all final goods and services that households, businesses, go...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 4 - Aggregate Supply
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Aggregate supply is the quantity of output that firms are willing and able to produce for the economy. In the long run, the level of output depends on the capital stock, the labor force and the level of technology. In the short ru...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 5 - Short-Run Equilibrium
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In this lesson, the focus is on the short-run equilibrium between aggregate supply and demand, on the changes in output and price level if aggregate supply or aggregate demand changes, and on the students' ability to explain corre...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 6 - Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand Analysis Continued
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Manipulation of the aggregate demand and aggregate supply model continues in this lesson. In particular, the students will practice shifting each curve and explaining why the curve shifted. The lesson then explores how the economy...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 7 - The Long-Run Economy
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
The last lesson explored the movement of the economy from the short run to the long run. Here, we explore the long-run aggregate supply curve and its relationship with the economy's production possibilities curve, introduced in Un...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 3: Lesson 8 - Fiscal Policy
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Fiscal policy is one of the two demand management policies available to policy makers. Government expenditures and the level and type of taxes are discretionary fiscal policy tools. This lesson explores the effects of these tools ...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 1 - Money
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
The properties of money, the functions of money and the definitions of money are important concepts for the students to understand in the initial study of money. Money has existed for a long time, and a wide range of commodities h...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 2 - Equation of Exchange
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson describes and explains the relationship between the money supply and gross domestic product. The equation of exchange is an identity and provides an understanding of the relationship between money and economic activit...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 3 - Financial Intermediaries
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Financial intermediaries act as the go-between borrowers and lenders. They take deposits from households and businesses and make loans to other households and businesses. Financial intermediaries include commercial banks, savings ...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 4 - The Federal Reserve System and Its Tools
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
The focus of this lesson is the Federal Reserve System: how its actions relate to the money creation process introduced in the last lesson and how its tools affect the money supply. The Federal Reserve System is the central bank...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 4: Lesson 5 - The Money Market and Monetary Policy
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In this lesson, the demand for and supply of money are brought together in the money market. The effects of the Federal Reserve System's monetary policy are integrated into the money market and then linked to aggregate demand. T...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 1 - Policy Lags and Crowding-Out Effect
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson discusses the lags associated with monetary and fiscal policy making and analyzes the direct and indirect effects of government budget deficits. The direct effect of these deficits is an increase in interest rates. Whe...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 2 - Monetary and Fiscal Policy Interact
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson continues an examination of the interaction between monetary and fiscal policy in the short run. It examines the impact of monetary and fiscal policy on output, the price level, unemployment, in-terest rates and invest...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 3 - Phillips Curve and Stabilization Policy
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
The Phillips curve is an empirical relationship found by A.W. Phillips that shows the relationship between the unemployment rate and the rate at which wages change. He discovered that changes in wages were inversely related to the...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 4 - Economic Growth
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
In this lesson, the students learn the main sources of long-term economic or real GDP growth and the policies that governments might use to increase economic growth. The students should be aware that there is a difference between ...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 5: Lesson 5 - Macroeconomic Theories
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
Listening to and reading analysis of the various policy proposals can confuse students who are learning economics for the first time. Here the current issues and sources of disagreement among economists should be presented. The st...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 6: Lesson 1 - International Trade
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson includes a review of comparative advantage and production possibilities curves. It then expands the concepts of specialization and trade to show the gains from international trade. Activity 49 gives the students practi...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 6: Lesson 2 - Government Intervention in International Trade
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
The last lesson demonstrated the benefits of trade among nations, showing that total output increased. Nevertheless, most nations attempt to create barriers to trade using tariffs, quotas or regulations. Trade barriers limit the g...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 6: Lesson 3 - International Finance
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
International trade and the methods of limiting trade are extremely important to understanding much of the current discussions about the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North Ameri-can Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This les...
Grade: 9-12

Macroeconomics Unit 6: Lesson 4 - Monetary and Fiscal Policy in a Global Economy
Advanced Placement Economics: Teacher Resource Manual
This lesson combines the knowledge of monetary and fiscal policy and the economy developed in Units 3 through 5 with the knowledge of international finance. It explains and analyzes the impact of domestic policy on the foreign exc...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 1: Markets and the Market System
Focus: Institutions and Markets
This lesson introduces students to the primary economic institution in a market economy, markets. As described in the introductory essay to this volume, markets are an institution that emerges spontaneously from the interaction o...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 2: Property Rights and Contracts as Economic Institutions
Focus: Institutions and Markets
Students consider the importance of a system of defining, recording and protecting property rights in a market-based economy. Students differentiate between private and communal property, they consider various methods for recordi...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 3: Business Organizations
Focus: Institutions and Markets
Students first look at a list of business names and discuss what the various abbreviations that are often used as part of businesses' names mean. In a reading, students learn about three types of business organizations - sole p...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 4: Financial Systems
Focus: Institutions and Markets
Students participate in a brief simulation to demonstrate the important role financial intermediaries play in promoting investment and economic growth in market economies. Through direct instruction, students learn some specializ...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 5: Maintaining Competition
Focus: Institutions and Markets
This lesson introduces the rationale for maintaining and strengthening competition, and illustrates the U.S. experience with antitrust laws and other government regulations and agencies. But there are costs and limits to the scop...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 6: Too Much Regulation?
Focus: Institutions and Markets
In this lesson, students first read an excerpt from The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair in 1906. Then they learn about the numerous regulations that govern the production and sales of a hamburger today, and about some governmen...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 7: Public Goods and Externalities
Focus: Institutions and Markets
This lesson gives students an opportunity to identify the nature of public and private goods, classify them according to the characteristics of rivalry and excludability, experience the impact of free riders and other external ben...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 9: The Distribution of Income and Investments in Human Capital
Focus: Institutions and Markets
This lesson introduces students to some key facts about the distribution of income in the United States, and provides some information and tools for analyzing changes in the distribution of income over the last three decades. Stud...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 10: Macroeconomic Stabilization Policies and Institutions
Focus: Institutions and Markets
This lesson begins by reviewing the discovery and adoption of Keynesian fiscal policies in the United States and other nations following World War II. Students then participate in several exercises to ascertain their understandin...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 11: "Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Why Do We Need the WTO?"
Focus: Institutions and Markets
Several activities are used to introduce students to six international institutions that play important economic roles, especially in the areas of international trade, finance, and development: the World Trade Organization (WTO),...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 12: Social Capital: Norms and Networks That Support Markets
Focus: Institutions and Markets
Students are introduced to the idea of "social capital," and learn how to distinguish it from physical capital. The importance of social capital in promoting economic growth and allowing a market economy to operate more efficient...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 1 - Old MacDonald Went to Trade
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Old MacDonald to Uncle Sam: Lesson Plans from Writers around the World
Students sing the familiar tune, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." They identify goods on the farm and suggest services that Farmer MacDonald might have provided or wanted. Acting as farmers, they write two new verses for their farm. ...
Grade: K-2

Lesson 2 - Goods and Services: Some Are Private, Some Are Not
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Old MacDonald to Uncle Sam: Lesson Plans from Writers around the World
Students make construction paper cutouts of businesses and structures and create a community map bulletin board. Students analyze the goods and services available in their community to determine that some are privately produced a...
Grade: 3-5, 6-8

Lesson 3 - Productivity in the Fertile Crescent
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Old MacDonald to Uncle Sam: Lesson Plans from Writers around the World
In this lesson, students participate in three rounds of a simulation in which they are merchants who must keep written records on their trades. In Round 1 they do not have some required skills or knowledge and are unable to produ...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 4 - Uncle Sam's Checkbook
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Old MacDonald to Uncle Sam: Lesson Plans from Writers around the World
Students learn about the components of federal income taxes and expenditures. They also create and analyze political cartoons relevant to federal taxes and expenditures.
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Lesson 5 - Scarcity and Choice
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Old MacDonald to Uncle Sam: Lesson Plans from Writers around the World
In this lesson, students participate in a role play as producers of two goods, allowing students to experience scarcity. They make choices about using their scarce resource to produce both or one of two goods. Then they construc...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 6 - Public Goods and Services
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Old MacDonald to Uncle Sam: Lesson Plans from Writers around the World
Students compare and define private and public goods. They receive money and must make a decision about paying for the heating in the classroom. This activity reinforces the concept of public goods and helps students identify an...
Grade: 6-8, 9-12

Unit 1: Lesson 1 - Economic Reasoning: Why Are We A Nation of Couch Potatoes?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine visuals to identify an economic mystery regarding exercise and diet. They use the Guide to Economic Reasoning to analyze the costs and benefits of decisions about diet and exercise. They discover that human beha...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 1: Lesson 2 - Scarcity and Abundance
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
The lesson provides students with two definitions of the term scarcity. They apply these definitions to several examples of human behavior. In the second part of the lesson they use the definitions to explain why people may trea...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 1: Lesson 3 - Economic Magic: Creating Something from Nothing
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students participate in a small-group survival activity designed to illustrate the basic economic decisions people in every economy must address. They must decide which resources are scarce and they must answer three basic questi...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 1: Lesson 5 - Rules Influence Economic Behavior
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
The lesson begins with a demonstration of how rules and incentives influence students' behavior in the classroom. Then students apply the same analysis to behavior in the larger economy. (WARNING: Given the unusual grading proc...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 6 - Why Did Communism Collapse?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine and discuss visuals to solve an economic mystery regarding the command system of the Soviet Union.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 7 - A Silver Market
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students participate in a simulation activity that shows how a competitive market works. Although most markets for goods and services are not as competitive as the silver commodity market, the example helps students gain an under...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 8 - A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Demand
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
This lesson asks students to analyze the relationship between changing prices and changes in consumer behavior, to create and understand the demand schedule graph, and to identify how various determinants of demand change the rela...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 9 - A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Supply
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students analyze the relationship between changing prices and changes in producer behavior. They create a supply schedule graph to represent this relationship. They observe changes in determinants of supply and note the effect o...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 10 - Equilibrium Prices and Equilibrium Quantities
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
In examining a visual about the market for yo-yos, students think through the process of mutual accommodation among buyers and sellers that results in an equilibrium price. Students then complete an activity plotting supply and d...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 11 - Do Prices Matter to Consumers?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
This lesson demonstrates how people use prices when they weight expected costs and expected benefits in making economic decisions. It helps students see how choosing a second-best good or service can in some cases improve their o...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 12 - How Do Prices Influence My Behavior? Price Elasticity
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students review consumer and producer behavior in light of changing prices. They predict consumers' and producers' responses to changes in prices, product characteristics, costs of production, time and technology factors.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 13 - How Markets Allocate Resources
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students read I, Pencil, by Leonard Read, to gain an understanding of Adam Smith's concept of the invisible hand of the marketplace. Students see that a system of market prices brings about cooperation without coercion. Then stu...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 2: Lesson 14 - Secondary Effects: Price Ceilings and Floors
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students investigate the consequences of price controls in markets for silver, rock concerts, automobiles, razor clams, and school textbooks. (It would be best to use this lesson after students have participated in the silver mark...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 3: Lesson 15 - Why Do Some People Earn More Than Others?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine and discuss visuals to identify an economic mystery regarding differences in income. They use the Guide to Economic Reasoning to analyze the problem and reach a tentative solution.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 3: Lesson 16 - Making Choices About Saving and Investing
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
This lesson introduces the distinction between savings and the investment. It demonstrates how the price of money --the interest rate--is critical to making the right savings and investment choices. It explains when, under vario...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 3: Lesson 17 - Creating and Using a Budget
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
This lesson focuses on using budgeting to maximize consumer satisfaction. It describes a flexible view of budgets, linking them to markets and market information, and demonstrates how and why budgets should be reviewed and modifi...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 3: Lesson 18 - Credit Management
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
This lesson is designed to help students make good consumer-credit decisions. Although using credit is beneficial at times, it often carries higher costs than many people realize. This lesson discusses the costs of credit in a m...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 3: Lesson 19 - Earning an Income
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine the concept of income. They identify factors that generate in come, including entrepreneurial traits and changing conditions in labor markets. In learning how income is generated, students plan and make choices ...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 4: Lesson 20 - Why Helping Yourself Helps Others
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine and discuss visuals to identify an economic mystery regarding greed and self-interest. They use economic reasoning to analyze the mystery and reach a tentative explanation.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 4: Lesson 21 - Productivity, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and the Demand for Labor
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students produce greeting cards with a fixed number of scissors and markers, and a variable number of workers. They discuss factors affecting workers productivity and the law of diminishing marginal returns. With a partner, they...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 4: Lesson 22 - How Competitive Is the Industry?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Using a local example, students discuss the benefits of competition. In small groups they read descriptions of the markets for cucumbers, haircuts, cereal, and diamonds (prior to 2000). They use this information to fill in a cha...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 4: Lesson 23 - Make a Profit: Do the Math
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Working as consultant teams, students use basic math to compute fixed costs, total costs, marginal costs, total revenues, marginal revenues, and profits (or losses) for a business. They determine the profit-maximizing quantity of...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 5: Lesson 24 - Government and the Environment
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine and discuss visuals to identify an economic mystery regarding the failure of the Endangered Species Act. They are introduced to the concepts of market failure and government failure. Using the Guide to Economic ...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 5: Lesson 25 - The Economics of the U.S. Constitution
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students discuss why the American economy grew in the period following the American Revolution. After reading an essay by Douglass North and examining the U.S. Constitution, they identify the economic features of the Constitution...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 5: Lesson 26 - Public versus Private Goods
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students discuss the role of government in the economy. They complete an activity in which they classify goods and services as public or private.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 5: Lesson 27 - The Economics of Special Interest Groups
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students learn about the diverse nature of special interest groups and read examples that show how incentives influence the actions of elected officials.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 5: Lesson 28 - The Economics of Voting
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine a visual to identify patterns of voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections. They analyze the costs and benefits of voting and discuss how people's voting behavior is influenced by incentives.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 5: Lesson 29 - Can Taxes Be Incentives?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine different types of taxes and criteria for determining a fair tax. Students work in pairs to predict how changes in taxes will change people's behavior.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 5: Lesson 30 - Poverty and Income Inequality
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students take part in an activity that simulates the unequal distribution of income in the United States, based on U.S. Census data. They discuss how equal distribution of income would affect incentives to work hard, especially f...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 6: Lesson 31 - Measuring Unemployment: A Labor Market Mystery
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine an economic mystery regarding employment and unemployment statistics. They learn how the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures employment and unemployment. They use the Guide to Economic Reasoning and some arithme...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 6: Lesson 32 - The Effects of Inflation
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine recent inflation rates in the United States and discuss the interpretation of inflation rates. They read about the inflation-related experiences of teachers in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and use t...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 6: Lesson 33 - Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and How to Measure It
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine GDP. They distinguish between nominal and real GDP. They study how GDP is comprised of household spending on consumption goods and services (C), business investment spending (I), government spending on goods and...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 6: Lesson 34 - Money and Monetary Policy
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
The concept of money creation by banks is often not intuitive for students, but it is important to their understanding of the role of the Federal Reserve. In this lesson, students first discuss money, its functions, and why the m...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 6: Lesson 35 - Fiscal Policy: A Two-Act Play
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Groups of students are given outlines for one of two acts in a play describing either expansionary or contractionary fiscal policy. After choosing parts and preparing lines for their roles, two groups are chosen to perform the pl...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 6: Lesson 36 - Should We Worry About the National Debt?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students discuss the size of the current national debt and what this means. A class discussion covers the causes of the debt, how it is financed, definitions of a budget deficit and budget surplus, and the difference between a bu...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 6: Lesson 37 - Can Government Manage the National Economy?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Although economists agree much more often than they disagree, the opinions of prominent economists on economic policy often conflict. This lesson seeks to clarify why economists disagree. Understanding the reasons for disagreeme...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 6: Lesson 38 - Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students build their understanding of aggregate demand and aggregate supply. They use their new skills to analyze the effects of events and government monetary and fiscal policies on inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. ...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 7: Lesson 39 - Why Go Global?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students examine an economic mystery regarding the importance of U.S. participation in the global economy. They participate in a demonstration regarding imported clothing. They use the Guide to Economic Reasoning to explain that...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 7: Lesson 40 - Why Do People Trade Across National Borders?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
This lesson involves students in a trading simulation that grows in complexity. Students use this experience to investigate the consequences of voluntary trade among individuals in increasingly larger groups.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 7: Lesson 41 - Why People Trade: Comparative Advantage
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
The students decide why people buy foreign goods, and they practice measuring the comparative advantage of different producers.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 7: Lesson 42 - Foreign Currencies and Foreign Exchange
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students participate in a simulated foreign exchange market. The exercise provides an opportunity for students to use supply and demand analysis to explain how flexible exchange rates are established in currency markets.
Grade: 9-12

Unit 7: Lesson 43 - Why Are Some Nations Wealthy?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students work in groups to examine data from several nations regarding size, natural resources, and population. Using these data, they try to identify the nations and predict whether each nation is rich or poor. Students rank th...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 7: Lesson 44 - World Environmental Issues: Is the Market at Fault?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Students study for short case studies. They identify similarities and differences across these five case studies. After noting this information, they assess several environmental policy solutions. They must decide which policie...
Grade: 9-12

Unit 7: Lesson 45 - International Trade: How Do We Measure Trades Across Political Borders?
Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for High School Economics - Teacher's Guide
Many popular misconceptions evolve from reading balance of payments reports. Newspaper stories warn us of the perils of a deficit in the U.S. trade balance and a surplus in the Chinese trade balance of payments reports and help t...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 1 - Why People Trade
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students participate in a trading simulation and use this experience to discover the benefits of free trade. In a class discussion, they relate the simulation to concepts of regional versus universal trade, trade barriers and dim...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 2 - Economic Decision Making
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students brainstorm ways to allocate a scarce good within the classroom. Then they work with a decision-making model that helps them make a decision about this allocation by showing them how to evaluate the merits of each alterna...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 3 - Using Economic Reasoning To Solve Mysteries
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students ponder an economic mystery: Why do professional athletes, many of whom never finish college, earn far higher salaries than people who perform worthy services such as teachers and firefighters? The students discuss vario...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 4 - Property Rights in a Market Economy
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students discuss private property, free enterprise, self-interest, competition, a system of markets and prices, and limited government as characteristics of market economies. They participate in or observe an activity demonstrati...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 5 - The Role of Government In a Market Economy
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students brainstorm suggestions about which functions government should perform in a market economy and compare their suggestions with categories economists frequently use. They participate in a quiz activity that shows the charac...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 6 - The Economic Way of Thinking: Three Activities to Demonstrate Marginal Analysis
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
This lesson consists of three activities that demonstrate different applications of marginal analysis. You may use the activities separately or do them together in one class period. In the first activity, the students produce a go...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 7 - A Market in Wheat
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students participate as buyers or sellers in a simulation that shows how a competitive market works. They determine individual profits or losses from market transactions. They use data from the simulation to plot and interpret a g...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 8 - Productivity
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Working in small groups, the students participate in a production simulation to determine the effects of specialization on labor productivity, the division of labor, and investment in human capital and capital goods.
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 9 - The Invention Convention
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Working in small groups, the students simulate firms creating and producing new products. Using budget guidelines, they must decide which inputs they will purchase. They calculate their costs of production and then display their p...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 10 - The Circular Flow of Economic Activity
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
In this lesson, the students read about market interactions and participate in a simulation. "Econoland" involves transactions between businesses and households in two kinds of markets: product markets and resource (or input) mar...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 11 - Money and Inflation
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students observe a simple demonstration to determine the functions that money performs. They next participate in two rounds of an auction illustrating how increases in the money supply lead to inflation. They view an active demons...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 12 - Fiscal Policy: A Two-Act Play
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Groups of students are given outlines for one of two acts in a play describing either expansionary or contractionary fiscal policy. After the students choose parts and prepare lines for their roles, two groups are chosen to perfor...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 13 - Comparative Advantage and Trade in a Global Economy
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students observe or participate in a role-play situation in which one person is better at both of two activities. They complete a work sheet that leads to the conclusion that specialization and exchange make both people better off...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 14 - Exchange Rates: Money Around the World
Economics in Action: 14 Greatest Hits for Teaching High School Economics
Students participate in two auctions to demonstrate the determination of flexible exchange rates and the need for foreign currency to purchase goods from other countries. In the first auction, the students may buy goods produced o...
Grade: 9-12

Lesson 1: There's Never Enough
The Wide World of Trade
Working in groups that represent countries, students randomly draw cards from boxes labeled natural resources, human resources, and capital goods. The groups use their available resources to provide for their citizens by satisfyi...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 2: Special Friends
The Wide World of Trade
Pairs of students play the roles of two friends who have chores to complete before they can spend time together. Through trial-and-error, students discover the benefits of specialization and trade. A second activity identifies r...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 3: Everyone Is Interdependent
The Wide World of Trade
In this lesson, students learn about resources from around the world that are used in the production of a specific product -- Hershey's Kisses. Students then determine the identity of a mystery product using clues about world res...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 4: Resources and Trade
The Wide World of Trade
Student groups represent people in different countries. Each group receives a packet of materials that represents productive resources. People in each country use the resources to provide food, clothing, shelter, businesses, and...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 5: Mystery Almanac
The Wide World of Trade
Working in groups, students participate in an activity to identify countries from around the world. Based on what they learn about these countries, students complete an Information Resources Chart. The goal is to have students r...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 6: Trading Connections
The Wide World of Trade
Students participate in a simulation to learn how trade benefits them as individuals and how trade benefits people in different regions and countries. Working in pairs, students learn about the major import and export partners fo...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 7: Mutual (and Comparative) Advantages
The Wide World of Trade
Using numerical examples and bar graphs, students see why it benefits two countries to specialize in the production of one of two products and then trade with each other, even if one country has the resources and technology to pro...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 8: Something's in the Way
The Wide World of Trade
The class is divided into two groups that participate in a simulation making two types of postcards. In the first round, each group specializes and then considers possible results from trading for the postcard it didn't produce. ...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 9: Why Restrict Trade?
The Wide World of Trade
Students learn some things about steel and identify a variety of products that are produced with steel. They participate in an activity to help them analyze the costs and benefits of a tariff. Students learn about special-intere...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 10: Why Trade Money?
The Wide World of Trade
In this lesson, students imagine a visit to the Mall of the World, a large international mall with shops that are owned and operated by people in other countries. Students choose items to eat at the Wide World of Taste, an intern...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 11: Why Are There Foreign Currency Markets?
The Wide World of Trade
After listing some of their own buying and selling activities, students recognize that most people and families are both buyers and sellers who make exchanges in different kinds of markets. The relationship between output markets...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 1: From Boxes to Sheep
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Resources A to Z
Productive resources are the natural resources, human resources, and capital goods (capital resources) available to make goods and services. In this lesson, students participate in two group activities that involve distinguishing...
Grade: K-2, 3-5

Lesson 2: Pyramids in Production
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Resources A to Z
The Egyptians built pyramids for their rulers with four sloping outside walls shaped like triangles. These structures were tombs and could take twenty or more years to build. Workers used sleds, wooden rollers, and levers to mov...
Grade: K-2, 3-5

Lesson 3: Porridge from an Ax
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Resources A to Z
In this lesson, students learn about natural, human, and capital resources, as well as ingredients (intermediate goods). They classify various resources and ingredients. Students listen to a Kyrgyz folk tale, learn about the res...
Grade: K-2, 3-5

Lesson 4: Entrepreneurs Exist Everywhere
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Resources A to Z
Students consider how many goods and services were created to make their lives better. This lesson examines the role of inventions, innovations, and entrepreneurs in our economy. Working in groups, students engage in problem sol...
Grade: K-2, 3-5

Lesson 5: Dacian Masks
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Resources A to Z
After learning about the Dacians who lived about 2000 years ago in the area now known as Romania, students make ancient Dacian masks. Students classify the different productive resources used to produce masks as natural resources...
Grade: K-2, 3-5

Lesson 6: Work Pays
This lesson is only available on the Virtual Economics CD-ROM.
Resources A to Z
Discussing parent jobs and reading a story help students learn about human resources. Students work at home and produce goods and services by helping their families. They receive beans from the teacher as income for their work. ...
Grade: K-2, 3-5

Lesson 1 - Happy Deal?
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
In this lesson, the students learn about currencies used in selected countries. They compare the prices of a Big Macª in different countries and convert the prices into U.S. dollars, using exchange rates. The students determine in...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 2 - Vacation Vexation
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
In this lesson, the students listen to the story of an American girl who is planning a trip to Mexico. They learn about foreign exchange and compare exchange rates to determine if one currency has appreciated or depreciated agains...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 3 - Baby-sitting Wages and Movie Prices
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
Through an analysis of data for baby-sitting wages (a price for labor) and the price of movie tickets since 1945, this lesson introduces the students to the idea that prices for goods, services, and resources change over time. The...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 4 - Constructing and Using a Consumer Price Index
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
In this lesson, the students look at data for baby-sitting wages (a price for labor) and the price of movie tickets over time. They learn about the Consumer Price Index and how to construct a price index. They learn how a price in...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 5 - Why Is Everyone so Crazy About Cell Phones?
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
This lesson is designed to introduce students to the benefits of competition utilizing proportions to compare different rates. The students will explore the market for cell phones in two activities. In activity one, the students a...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 6 - How Much is That Bike?
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
This lesson demonstrates the utility of percentages in comparing fractions of unequal size; it also provides students with practice in using percent to calculate simple interest. Students are introduced to the idea of buying on cr...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 7 - Which Pet is Right for You?
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
This lesson focuses on a topic that is at the heart of economics, that of decision making. Decision making from an economic perspective requires individuals to consider both the benefits and costs for each alternative. Human natur...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 8 - Could You Earn a Million Dollars?
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
This lesson is designed to acquaint students with the relationship between earnings and education. The data are very clear regarding one's earning potential and educational attainment. That is, the more education an individual has...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 9 - Deserted Island
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
This lesson is designed to introduce students to the idea that not all skills are valued equally in the marketplace. The students will explore these differences using their mathematics skills to create box and whisker plots. They ...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 10 - Where Does the Price of Pizza Come From? Part 1
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
This lesson challenges students to identify the source of market prices. The students will complete a series of activities that represent supply and demand. In Activity 10.1, the students are asked to plot points, connect the poin...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 11 - Where Does the Price of Pizza Come From? Part 2
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
In this lesson students continue to examine where prices come from (see Lesson 10), applying the concepts of supply, demand, and equilibrium. Students will examine changes within a market for pizza utilizing linear equations as th...
Grade: 6-8

Lesson 12 - Charting a Budget
Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life - 6-8
In this lesson, students learn what a budget is. They construct a pie chart to show the distribution of expenses in a budget. They learn about payroll deductions and determine the impact that payroll deductions have on a budget. F...
Grade: 6-8

Theme 1: Lesson 1 - Earning Income
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, students play a guessing game to identify various occupations. Then they consider some of the education, skills, and talents required for those occupations. They analyze the connection between human capital and wa...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 1: Lesson 2 - Urban Mouse & Rural Mouse
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, children use an index of businesses for a fictitious community to learn that people provide goods and services in the community. They read an adaptation of the fable "City Mouse, Country Mouse." Children use the ...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 1: Lesson 3 - People Pay Taxes
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, students participate in an activity to help them understand that people pay taxes. They learn about income, gross income, income taxes, and net income. They also learn that governments provide goods and services ...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 2: Lesson 4 - The Grasshopper and the Ant
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, children use an adaptation of Aesop's fable, "The Grasshopper and the Ant," to learn about the trade-off between satisfying wants today and planning for the future. Children use the fable to examine their own beha...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 2: Lesson 5 - Why? How? Where?
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
This lesson provides some practical activities to extend students' understanding about how to make saving choices. Children set a goal, determine a strategy for saving, and decide how they will save to best achieve that goal. Th...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 3: Lesson 6 - Consumers Want Goods and Services
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
This lesson focuses on consumer spending decisions that students make and the different roles they assume in making those decisions. The activities establish a rationale for studying personal finance decision making.
Grade: 3-5

Theme 3: Lesson 7 - To Choose is to Refuse
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, students use the concept of opportunity cost to help decide which wants to satisfy with their limited income. Practicing decision making helps build consumer skills and develop an understanding of the importance o...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 3: Lesson 8 - How Would You Like to Pay?
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, students are introduced to various methods of payment, such as cash, check, debit card, money order, and credit card. They learn some of the advantages and disadvantages of each method of payment. They also pract...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 3: Lesson 9 - More About Methods of Payment
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson--which is a continuation of Lesson 8--students participate in a role-play activity designed to give them a more in-depth understanding of various methods of payment, such as cash, check, debit card, money order, and...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 3: Lesson 10 - Why Do I Want All This Stuff?
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, students learn about various types of advertising appeals, such as bandwagon, celebrity endorsement, and authority endorsement. They analyze ads to decide the audience to which the ad is targeted, the type of adve...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 3: Lesson 11 - This One or That One?
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, students consider various factors that are important in comparison shopping. They compare prices and other factors for a particular product in order to make a decision.
Grade: 3-5

Theme 3: Lesson 12 - Credit is Based on Trust
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, students solve a puzzle to learn about trustworthiness. They participate in a reader's theater play and analyze the connection between trust and creditworthiness.
Grade: 3-5

Theme 3: Lesson 13 - Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, students role-play how they would respond to various lending situations and analyze how to make better decisions about lending. By assuming the role of lender, students will analyze the qualities necessary to rece...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 4: Lesson 14 - Managing Money
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
A budget is frightening to many people. It brings thoughts of sacrifice or giving up things they want. It is seldom seen as a helpful tool for making better decisions about the things they want, including financial success. Alt...
Grade: 3-5

Theme 4: Lesson 15 - It's a Balancing Act
Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness - Grades 3-5 - Teacher Guide
In this lesson, the students use manipulatives to learn about income, expenses (variable, fixed), and budgeting.
Grade: 3