Principles of Economics
SPRING 2019 SEMESTER: PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Economics functions as a lens through which to consider the impact of governmental action (or inaction) on the lives of citizens. Understanding how the economy functions and how economic reasoning can inform decision making will provide students with the tools to become financially literate and independent. Economics is the study of how people choose to use resources. It is also a discipline that analyzes how to promote productive economic activities such as entrepreneurship, education and government investment in infrastructure, and research; it studies how to promote full employment, fair wage growth, and return on capital; it explores how to avoid financial dislocations and predatory business practices; and it argues how best to provide basic safety-net supports such as retirement for each citizen. -California Department of Education
Week 23: What is Economics?
How do scarce resources - including time - affect you and everyone around you? How do economists simplify the world to help us better understand it? This introductory week will explain what economics is, and how it is part of your daily life.
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 24: Economic Systems and the American Economy
Why do we, as American consumers, have so many choices? How is our economy different from the economies of other countries? This week will explain the different kinds of economic systems.
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 25: Goals of the Nation
Nations have values, and they set goals for themselves based on those values. Although goals have ethical, social, and religious elements, we’ll focus on their economic implications. The United States has six major goals for our free
enterprise system: (1) freedom, (2) efficiency, (3) equity, (4) security, (5) stability, and (6) growth.
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 26: Analyzing the Global Economy
Student Learning Objectives:
Weeks 27-28: Practical Economics
You and everyone around you are consumers and, as such, play an important role in the economic system. Americans consume a great variety of foods. In all, American consumers spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on food. Some people will save for years in order to buy a small house. Others take out huge mortgages to purchase large homes. Still others are content to rent a house, condo, or apartment most of their lives. Americans use credit to make many purchases. The total amount of funds borrowed and lent each year is enormous. The nation’s economy, in fact, depends on individuals and groups being able to buy and borrow on credit. In this lesson, students will learn how to spend – or not spend – their income wisely, how to get the most from their food dollars, about renting versus buying, and about what credit is and why people use it.
Student Learning Objectives:
Weeks 29-30: Saving and Investing
Why should you save? What is the difference between saving and investing? This chapter will explain reasons for saving, as well as the various institutions and investments in which to put your money.
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 31: Final Exam Review
Week 32: Quarter 3 Final Exams
Week 33: Demand and Supply
Understanding the laws of supply and demand are central to understanding how the capitalist economy operates. Since we rely on market forces instead of government forces to distribute goods and services there must be some method for determining how gets the products that are produced. By themselves the laws of supply and demand give us basic information, but when combined together they are the key to distribution in the market economy ... price.
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 34: Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
"Millions of Americans work full-time for poverty-level wages. Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. Nickel and Dimed is the revealing, compelling, and widely acclaimed result of that decision - a book that has already become a masterpiece of undercover reportage, and a portrait-of-the-working-poor classic that is showing up in classrooms throughout the nation. How does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out Ehrenreich takes low-wage jobs in Florida, then in Maine, and finally in Minnesota, working as a waitress, a hotel maid, and cleaning woman, a nursing home aide, and a Wal-Mart salesperson ... Nickel and Dimed is an absolute must for anyone who wants to see what 'prosperity' looks like from the bottom, or who suspects that the 'American dream' is becoming a fantasy."
Nickel and Dimed Summary Response Packet
Week 35: Spring Break - No School
Weeks 36-37: The American Labor Force
Everyone – from a factory worker to the president of a corporation – belongs to the productive resource known as labor. This chapter will explain the major categories of the labor force and the factors that affect wages. This week, students will learn how workers are categorized, how wages are determined, and why employers need to pay more to get (and keep) good workers. To have some control over the wages they receive as well as over other working conditions, many American workers formed labor unions. Students will learn that unions are based on the idea that workers as a group will have more influence on management than individual workers action alone.
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 38: Trading with Other Nations
What percentage of goods in American stores are foreign-made? What happens to the dollars Americans spend outside the United States? Trade is important because imports supply us with many goods and natural resources, and many American workers are employed in industries that export products abroad. Three major barriers to world trade are tariffs, quotas, and embargoes. This week students will explore the importance of international trade, and how they benefit from it.
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 39: Absolute vs. Comparative Advantage
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations supplied powerful arguments for free trade. In the early 1800s, British economist David Ricardo expanded on Smith's ideas by observing that it pays to specialize and trade - even if some potential trading partner is more productive in all economic activities. His work was vital in developing the idea of comparative advantage as an argument in support of free trade.
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 40: Restrictions on World Trade
To trade or not to trade? The difficulties that different currencies cause are only one problem of world trade. There are also natural barriers, which include the differences in languages and cultures between various trading partners. This week students learn that some nations may set restrictions to discourage or limit trade.
Student Learning Objectives:
Finals Week - 75th Anniversary of D-Day Activities
Heroes of a More Certain Time
Eisenhower's Private "In Case of Failure" Message
Eisenhower's Public "D-Day" Message
How do scarce resources - including time - affect you and everyone around you? How do economists simplify the world to help us better understand it? This introductory week will explain what economics is, and how it is part of your daily life.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will explore the difference between wants and needs.
- Students will explain why scarcity and choice are basic problems of economics.
- Students will identify the 4 factors of production.
- Students will explore how trade-offs and opportunity costs are related.
- Students will understand how society's trade-offs can be shown on a production possibilities curve.
- Students will analyze how economists use models to study the real world.
Week 24: Economic Systems and the American Economy
Why do we, as American consumers, have so many choices? How is our economy different from the economies of other countries? This week will explain the different kinds of economic systems.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will identify and describe the three questions all economic systems must answer.
- Students will analyze the major types of economic systems and their differences.
- Students will understand the role of government in the U.S. free enterprise economy.
Week 25: Goals of the Nation
Nations have values, and they set goals for themselves based on those values. Although goals have ethical, social, and religious elements, we’ll focus on their economic implications. The United States has six major goals for our free
enterprise system: (1) freedom, (2) efficiency, (3) equity, (4) security, (5) stability, and (6) growth.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will evaluate how freedom of enterprise and freedom of choice apply to the American economy.
- Students will consider the roles private property, the profit incentive, and competition play in the American economy.
- Students will identify the major goals of a market economy.
Week 26: Analyzing the Global Economy
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will identify the major economic goals of a market economy.
- Students will analyze the global economic news for national economic goals.
Weeks 27-28: Practical Economics
You and everyone around you are consumers and, as such, play an important role in the economic system. Americans consume a great variety of foods. In all, American consumers spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on food. Some people will save for years in order to buy a small house. Others take out huge mortgages to purchase large homes. Still others are content to rent a house, condo, or apartment most of their lives. Americans use credit to make many purchases. The total amount of funds borrowed and lent each year is enormous. The nation’s economy, in fact, depends on individuals and groups being able to buy and borrow on credit. In this lesson, students will learn how to spend – or not spend – their income wisely, how to get the most from their food dollars, about renting versus buying, and about what credit is and why people use it.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will understand the difference between disposable and discretionary income.
- Students will identify three considerations which govern decision making as a consumer.
- Students will discuss why people go into debt.
- Student will explore which factors to consider when deciding whether or not use credit.
- Student will identify advantages and disadvantages of comparison food shopping.
- Student will discuss the three rules for determining how much to spend on a house.
Weeks 29-30: Saving and Investing
Why should you save? What is the difference between saving and investing? This chapter will explain reasons for saving, as well as the various institutions and investments in which to put your money.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will examine when to save and when to invest.
- Students will explore how passbook, statement, and money market accounts differ.
- Students will identify the advantages of time deposits.
- Students will understand how stocks and bonds differ.
- Students will explore available retirement investments.
Week 31: Final Exam Review
Week 32: Quarter 3 Final Exams
Week 33: Demand and Supply
Understanding the laws of supply and demand are central to understanding how the capitalist economy operates. Since we rely on market forces instead of government forces to distribute goods and services there must be some method for determining how gets the products that are produced. By themselves the laws of supply and demand give us basic information, but when combined together they are the key to distribution in the market economy ... price.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will evaluate how the principle of voluntary exchange operates in a market economy.
- Students will explain what the law of demand states.
- Students will understand how the real income effect, the substitution effect, and diminishing marginal utility relate to the law of demand.
- Students will demonstrate the ability to comprehend the effects of the interaction between supply and demand in a market society.
- Students will predict the outcomes when various economic situations occur.
Week 34: Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
"Millions of Americans work full-time for poverty-level wages. Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. Nickel and Dimed is the revealing, compelling, and widely acclaimed result of that decision - a book that has already become a masterpiece of undercover reportage, and a portrait-of-the-working-poor classic that is showing up in classrooms throughout the nation. How does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out Ehrenreich takes low-wage jobs in Florida, then in Maine, and finally in Minnesota, working as a waitress, a hotel maid, and cleaning woman, a nursing home aide, and a Wal-Mart salesperson ... Nickel and Dimed is an absolute must for anyone who wants to see what 'prosperity' looks like from the bottom, or who suspects that the 'American dream' is becoming a fantasy."
Nickel and Dimed Summary Response Packet
Week 35: Spring Break - No School
Weeks 36-37: The American Labor Force
Everyone – from a factory worker to the president of a corporation – belongs to the productive resource known as labor. This chapter will explain the major categories of the labor force and the factors that affect wages. This week, students will learn how workers are categorized, how wages are determined, and why employers need to pay more to get (and keep) good workers. To have some control over the wages they receive as well as over other working conditions, many American workers formed labor unions. Students will learn that unions are based on the idea that workers as a group will have more influence on management than individual workers action alone.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will identify how workers are categorized according to skill level and training.
- Students will evaluate how skill, type of job, and location affect supply and demand in the labor market.
- Students will discuss what obstacles the labor unions faced when they began to organize in the 1800s.
- Students will research labor's early struggle for recognition.
Week 38: Trading with Other Nations
What percentage of goods in American stores are foreign-made? What happens to the dollars Americans spend outside the United States? Trade is important because imports supply us with many goods and natural resources, and many American workers are employed in industries that export products abroad. Three major barriers to world trade are tariffs, quotas, and embargoes. This week students will explore the importance of international trade, and how they benefit from it.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will understand the benefits of international trade.
- Students will identify arguments for and against free trade.
- Students will explore how exchange rates affect the balance of trade.
Week 39: Absolute vs. Comparative Advantage
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations supplied powerful arguments for free trade. In the early 1800s, British economist David Ricardo expanded on Smith's ideas by observing that it pays to specialize and trade - even if some potential trading partner is more productive in all economic activities. His work was vital in developing the idea of comparative advantage as an argument in support of free trade.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will explore the difference between absolute advantage and comparative advantage.
- Students will analyze Donald J. Boudreaux's article "Comparative Advantage" on Ricardo's theory.
Week 40: Restrictions on World Trade
To trade or not to trade? The difficulties that different currencies cause are only one problem of world trade. There are also natural barriers, which include the differences in languages and cultures between various trading partners. This week students learn that some nations may set restrictions to discourage or limit trade.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students explore how a nation can restrict imports.
- Students analyze arguments for and against free trade.
- Students identify current international and regional trade agreements.
Finals Week - 75th Anniversary of D-Day Activities
Heroes of a More Certain Time
Eisenhower's Private "In Case of Failure" Message
Eisenhower's Public "D-Day" Message