GLEN RIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Curriculum Guide
Course Title: Economics
Subject: Economics
Grade Level: 12
Department/School: Social Studies/High School
Duration: Half
Year
Number of Credits: 2.5
Prerequisite: None
Elective or Required: Elective
Author: Tim Liddy
Date Submitted: Summer, 2003
Course Description
Economics is the study of choices and decisions people make about how to use the world’s resources. The understanding of economics will help students make informed decisions for themselves and assess the decisions made by others. The course is designed to improve the economic and business literacy of students with a hands-on approach.
The mission of Social Studies in the Glen Ridge Schools is to educate students to become active participants in a democratic society. The Social Studies curriculum will develop the students’ understanding of themselves and their environment, encompassing family, community, state, nation, and the world. The curriculum stresses an educational environment, which teaches respect for cultures, gender and ethnic diversity. The goals will empower students with critical thinking, decision-making, and communications skills. The Social Studies program will provide students the opportunity to learn about the past and present so that they will be prepared for the future.
Course Description
Unit 1 - Introduction to Economics
Standard 6.7
Objectives
Each student will be able to:
1. Define economics and identify the concepts of scarcity and shortage.
2. Explain how people make decisions by thinking at the margin.
3. Demonstrate how production possibilities graphs show efficiency, growth, and cost.
4. Identify the three economic questions every society must answer.
5. Analyze the free market.
6. Identify the centrally planned economy.
7. Understand the role of free enterprise in the economy of the United States.
8. Examine how the government creates policies to serve the public interest.
9. Identify examples of public goods.
10. Analyze the government’s economic goals.
11. Understand the concepts of marginally, marginal benefits, and marginal costs and apply these concepts to decisions of individuals, institutions, and governments. (6.7 A.1)
12. Evaluate how the three major economic systems answer the three basic questions. (6.7 C.3)
13. Understand the concept of market failure as related to environmental impact with respect to discrimination, roles of women, government regulation, public goods, and the welfare state. (6.7 C.4)
Duration: 2 weeks
Activities:
- Create a chart for scarcity and shortage.
- Create examples of understanding and thinking at the margin.
- Create a production possibilities graph.
- Research a country and create a chart showing how the country answers the three key
economic questions.
- Create a flow diagram on a free market economy.
- Create tables comparing the advantages and disadvantages of a centrally planned
economy.
- Construct a web organizer that shows the significance of free enterprise in the United
States.
- List the agencies that have been created to protect the American public through public
policies.
- List examples of safety nets provided by the
- Draft a proposal for a public good that would benefit students of the school.
- Research through media how the government tracks and seeks to influence business
cycles.
Unit 2 - How Markets
Work
Standard 6.7
Objectives
Each student will be able to:
1. Explain the law of demand.
2. Understand the difference between a change in quantity demanded and a shift in the demand curve.
3. Identify factors that effect elasticity of demand.
4. Explain the law of supply.
5. Explain how firms decide how much labor to hire to produce a certain level of output.
6. Identify three ways that the government can influence supply of a good.
7. Compare a market in equilibrium with a market in disequilibrium.
8. Describe how price changes in the market.
9. Analyze the advantages of a price-based system over rationing.
10. Analyze the four conditions that are in place in a perfectly competitive market.
11. Describe how monopolies are formed.
12. Explain how firms compete without lowering prices.
13. Analyze practices that the government regulates or bans to protect perfect competition.
14. Analyze the impact of the basic market structures, pure competition, and monopoly upon societies. (6.7 C.2)
Duration: 4 weeks
Activities:
- Research real-life examples of demand skyrocketing or plummeting.
- Create a graph on a shift in quantity demanded on the demand curve.
- List the factors that affect elasticity.
- Define the law of supply and research examples pertaining to the definition.
- Create a chart showing how a firm decides to hire workers due to production.
- List the three ways that government can influence a supply of a good.
- Create and then compare a graph of a market in equilibrium to a market in
disequilibrium.
- Research ways price changes a market.
- Create a chart of pros and cons of a price-based system over rationing.
- List with examples the four conditions in place for a perfectly competitive market.
- Research monopolies during specific periods of history.
- Create an infomercial comparing monopolistic competition to monopoly, perfect
competition, and oligopoly.
- Research and list three market practices that the government regulates or bans to protect
competition.
Unit 3 - Business and Labor
Standard 6.7
Objectives:
The students will be able to:
1. Identify
a sole proprietorship in the
2. Compare and contrast the different types of partnerships.
3. Understand the different types of corporations and the way corporations are structured.
4. Understand how a business franchise works.
5. Explain
how labor unions rose to power in the
6. Identify
groups of people that make up the labor force of the
7. Compare
and contrast occupational trends in manufacturing and service jobs in the
8. Understand the significance of factors of production, forms of business organization, labor unions, and professional organizations. (6.7 B.1)
9. Demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles of personal financial management and economic decision-making. (6.7 F.2)
Duration: 3 weeks
Activities:
- List the advantages and disadvantages of a sole proprietorship.
- Create a chart comparing and contrasting partnerships.
- Create a list with examples of the different types of corporations and their structures.
- Create a list of cooperative organizations.
- Students will create their own firm using the examples from Chapter 8.
- Create a timeline of the labor union movement in the
- Use a census or almanac to graph data illustrating the people that make up the labor
force
in the
- Create charts that summarize trends in the composition of the U.S labor force in the
second half of the twentieth century.
- Research and create a bar graph on the ten highest paying and lowest paying full time
occupations
in the
UNIT 4 - Money
Banking and Finance
Standard 6.7
Objectives:
Each student will be able to:
1. Describe the three uses of money.
2. Explain how the banking system was established.
3. Describe the services banks provide.
4. Identify the trade-offs of risk liquidity and return.
5. Compare and contrast different types of bonds.
6. Understand the risks and benefits of buying stocks.
7. Describe the structure of today’s Federal Reserve System.
8. Describe how the Federal Reserve serves banks.
9. Understand why some monetary policy tools are favored over others.
10. Understand how monetary policy works.
11. Understand how governments have used fiscal and monetary policies in attempts to manage the economy and to promote equity and economic growth. (6.7 D.1)
12. Understand the major characteristics of the Federal Reserve System. (6.7 E.1)
13. Demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles of personal financial management and economic decision-making. (6.7 F.2)
Duration: 4 weeks
Activities
- Create a list with examples of the three different uses of money.
- Research and create a timeline of the
- Create in groups a fact sheet that lists and briefly describes the various service banks
provide.
- Create a chart with the type of risk and description and example for each.
- Create a graphic organizer on the different types of bonds with the advantages and
disadvantages of each.
- Participation in stock market games.
- Create a graph of the structure of the Federal Reserve System.
- Write a brief advertising copy for the Federal Reserve System.
- Design a chart on the tools of the monetary policy.
- Stage a debate on monetary policy.
Unit 5 - Measuring Economic Performance
Standard 6.7
Objectives:
Each student will be able to:
1. Explain how the gross domestic product is calculated.
2. Identify the factors that influence the GDP.
3. Describe the key factors that keep the business cycle going.
4. Describe how economists measure a nation’s economic growth.
5. Identify the causes and impact of technological progress.
6. Describe frictional, seasonal, structural, and cyclical unemployment.
7. Analyze inflation.
8. Explain the government policies intended to combat poverty.
9. Understand how governments have used fiscal and monetary policies in attempts to manage the economy and to promote equity and growth. (6.7 D.1)
10. Describe the states of business cycles using economic indicators. (6.7 C.3)
11. Analyze the major exports, imports, and trading partners of the United States.
12. Describe efforts toward international co-operation and agreements.
13. Understand how exchange rates affect international trade.
14. Evaluate international trade principles and policies. (6.7 F.1)
Duration: 4 weeks
Activities:
- Create an imaginary small country, providing data for a limited number of goods and
services for a particular year. Calculate GDP for the country, using both expenditure
and income approaches. Present in poster form.
- Research and list the four key factors of the business cycle with examples for each.
- List and define economic variables of the
- Research examples in newspapers and magazines of the impact of technology.
- Perform a skit that demonstrates unemployment.
- Create a cause and effect chart for inflation.
- Research and create a graphic organizer detailing government policies to combat
poverty.
- Research and create a chart on the trading partners of the
and imports.
- Research and write summaries on an organization or agreement describing its basic
purpose.
- Research the value of a nation’s currency as compared to
the
last day of each month for the proceeding year.
- Create line graphs that show fluctuations of currencies in relation to the U.S. dollar in
the
past year.