Lesson Plans EDITION I

ECONOMIC LESSON PLANS EDITION 1 – 2014-2105

UNIT 1 – DESCRIBE FUNDAMENTAL ECONOMIC CONCEPTS TO OBTAIN A FOUNDATION FOR EMPLOYMENT IN BUSINESS.

• Lesson Plan 1: Scarcity, Choice, Opportunity Cost and Comparative Advantage. Using examples, explain how scarcity, choice, opportunity costs affect decisions that households, businesses, and governments make in the market place and explain how comparative advantage creates gains from trade.
• Lesson Plan 2: Circular Flow and the National Economy. Using the concept of circular flow, analyze the roles and the relationships between households, business firms, financial institutions, and government and non-government agencies in the economy of the United States.
• Lesson Plan 3: Law of Supply. Explain the law of supply and analyze the likely change in supply when there are changes in prices of the productive resources (e.g., labor, land, capital, including technology), or the profit opportunities available to producers by selling other goods or services, or the number of sellers in a market.
• Lesson Plan 4: Law of Demand. Explain the law of demand and analyze the likely change in demand when there are changes in prices of the goods or services, availability of alternative (substitute or complementary) goods or services, or changes in the number of buyers in a market created by such things as a change in income or availability of credit.
• Lesson Plan 5: Price in the Market. Analyze how prices send signals and provide incentives to buyers and sellers in a competitive market.
• Lesson Plan 6: Price, Equilibrium, Elasticity, and Incentives. Analyze how prices change through the interaction of buyers and sellers in a market including the role of supply, demand, equilibrium, elasticity, and explain how incentives (monetary and non-monetary) affect choices of households and economic organizations.

UNIT 2 – DESCRIBE THE NATURE OF BUSINESS TO SHOW ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIETY.

• Lesson 7: Business Structures. Compare and contrast the functions and constraints facing economic institutions including small and large businesses, labor unions, banks, and households.
• Lesson 8: Circular Flow and the National Economy. Using the concept of circular flow, analyze the roles and the relationships between households, business firms, financial institutions, and government and non-government agencies in the economy of the United States.
• Lesson 9: Relationship Between Expenditures and Revenue (Circular Flow). Using the circular flow model, explain how spending on consumption, investment, government, and net exports determines national income; explain how a decrease in total expenditures affects the value of a nation’s output of final goods and services.

UNIT 3 – EXPLAIN ECONOMICS SYSTEMS IN WHICH MARKETING ACTIVITIES ARE PERFORMED.

• Lesson Plan 10: Major Economic Systems. Give examples of and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of major economic systems (command, market and mixed), including their philosophical and historical foundations (e.g., Marx and the Communist Manifesto, Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations). (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson Plan 11: Developing Nations. Assess how factors such as availability of natural resources, investments in human and physical capital, technical assistance, public attitudes and beliefs, property rights and free trade can affect economic growth in developing nations. (National Geography Standards 1 and 4, pp. 184 and 190)
• Lesson Plan 12: International Organizations and the World Economy. Evaluate the diverse impact of trade policies of the World Trade Organization, World Bank, or International Monetary Fund on developing economies of Africa, Central America, or Asia, and the developed economies of the United States and Western Europe. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson Plan 13: Comparing Economic Systems. Using the three basic economic questions (e.g., what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce), compare and contrast a socialist (command) economy (such as North Korea or Cuba) with the Capitalist as a mixed, free market system of the United States. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson Plan 14: Impact of Transitional Economies. Analyze the impact of transitional economies, such as in China and India, on the global economy in general and the American economy in particular. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson Plan 15: Entrepreneurship. Identify the risks, returns and other characteristics of entrepreneurship that bear on its attractiveness as a career.
• Lesson Plan 16: Income. Describe how individuals and businesses earn income by selling productive resources.

UNIT 4 – ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE OF THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT ON BUSINESS ACTIVITIES TO MAKE INFORMED ECONOMIC DECISIONS.

• Lesson Plan 14: Impact of Transitional Economies. Analyze the impact of transitional economies, such as in China and India, on the global economy in general and the American economy in particular. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson Plan 15: Entrepreneurship. Identify the risks, returns and other characteristics of entrepreneurship that bear on its attractiveness as a career.
• Lesson Plan 16: Income. Describe how individuals and businesses earn income by selling productive resources.
• Lesson Plan 17: Public Policy and the Market. Analyze the impact of a change in public policy (such as an increase in the minimum wage, a new tax policy, or a change in interest rates) on consumers, producers, workers, savers, and investors. NOTE: the bulk of these benchmarks are taught in Civics-this should be a brief review.
• Lesson Plan 18: Government and Consumers. Analyze the role of government in protecting consumers and enforcing contracts (including property rights) and explain own this role influences the incentives (or disincentives) for people to produce and exchange goods and services. NOTE: the bulk of these benchmarks are taught in Civics-this should be a brief review.
• Lesson Plan 19: Federal Government and Macroeconomic Goals. Identify the three macroeconomic goals of an economic system (stable prices, low unemployment, and economic growth).
• Lesson Plan 20: Macroeconomic Policy Alternatives. Compare and contrast differing policy recommendations for the role of the Federal government in achieving the macroeconomic goals of stable prices, low unemployment, and economic growth.
• Lesson Plan 21: Fiscal Policy and its Consequences. Analyze the consequences – intended and unintended – of using various tax and spending policies to achieve macroeconomic goals of stable prices, low unemployment, and economic growth.
• Lesson Plan 22: Government Revenue and Services. Analyze the ways in which local and state governments generate revenue (e.g., income, sales, and property taxes) and those that revenue for public services (e.g., parks and highways). NOTE: the bulk of these benchmarks are taught in Civics-this should be a brief review.
• Lesson Plan 23: Government Revenue and Services. Analyze the ways in which governments generate revenue on consumption, income, and wealth and use that revenue for public services (e.g., parks and highways) and social welfare (e.g., social security, Medicaid, Medicare
• Lesson Plan 24: Functions of Government. Explain the various functions of government in a market economy including the provision of public goods and services, the creation of currency, the establishment of property rights, the enforcement of contracts, correcting for externalities and market failures, the redistribution of income and wealth, regulation of labor (e.g., minimum wage, child labor, working conditions), and the promotion of economic growth and security. NOTE: the bulk of these benchmarks are taught in Civics-this should be a brief review.
• Lesson Plan 25: Money Supply, Inflation, and Recession. Explain the relationships between money supply, inflation, and recessions.
• Lesson Plan 26: Financial Institutions and Money Supply. Analyze how decisions by the Federal Reserve and actions by financial institutions (e.g., commercial banks, credit unions) regarding deposits and loans, impact the expansion and contraction of the money supply.
• Lesson Plan 27: Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy. Explain the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System and compare and contrast the consequences – intended and unintended – of different monetary policy actions of the Federal Reserve Board as a means to achieve macroeconomic goals of stable prices, low unemployment, and economic growth
• Lesson Plan 28: Economic Incentives and Government. Identify and explain how monetary and non-monetary incentives affect government officials and voters and explain how government policies affect the behavior of various people including consumers, savers, investors, workers, and producers. NOTE: The bulk of these benchmarks are taught in Civics-this should be a brief review.

UNIT 5 – ANALYZE COST/PROFIT RELATIONSHIPS TO GUIDE BUSINESS DECISION MAKING.

• Lesson Plan 29: Investment, Productivity, and Growth. Analyze the role of investments in physical (e.g. technology) and human capital (e.g. education) play in increasing productivity and how these influence the market.

UNIT 6 – DESCRIBE ECONOMIC INDICATORS THAT CAN IMPACT MARKETING ACTIVITIES.

• Lesson 30: GDP and Standard of Living. Using current and historical data on real per capita GDP for the United States, and at least three other countries (e.g. Japan, Somalia, and South Korea) construct a relationship between real GDP and standard of living. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson 31: Gross Domestic Product and Economic Growth. Use GDP data to measure the rate of economic growth in the United States and identify factors that have contributed to economic growth.
• Lesson 32: Economic Indicators. Using a number of indicators, such as GDP, per capita GDP, unemployment rates, and Consumer Price Index, analyze the characteristics of business cycles, including the characteristics of peaks, recessions, and expansions.
• Lesson 33: Unemployment. Analyze the character of different types of unemployment including frictional, structural, and cyclical.

UNIT 7 – DETERMINE GLOBAL TRADE’S IMPACT ON BUSINESS DECISION MAKING.

• Lesson Plan 34: The Global Economy and the Marketplace. Analyze and describe how the global economy has changed the interaction of buyers and sellers, such as in the automobile industry. (National Geography Standard 13, p. 210)
• Lesson Plan 35: Absolute and Comparative Advantage. Use the concepts of absolute and comparative advantage to explain why goods and services are produced in one nation or locale versus another. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson Plan 36: Domestic Activity and World Trade. Assess the impact of trade policies (i.e. tariffs, quotas, export subsidies, product standards, and other barriers), monetary policy, exchange rates, and interest rates on domestic activity and world trade. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson Plan 37: Exchange Rates and the World Trade. Describe how interest rates in the United States impact the value of the dollar against other currencies (such as the Euro), and explain how exchange rates affect the value of goods and services of the United States in other markets. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 206)
• Lesson Plan 38: Monetary Policy. Analyze how the decisions made by a country’s central bank (or the Federal Reserve) impact a nation’s international trade. (National Geography Standard 13, p. 210)
• Lesson Plan 39: American Economy in the World. Analyze the changing relationship between the American economy and the global economy including, but not limited to, the increasing complexity of American economic activity (e.g., outsourcing, off-shoring, and supply-chaining) generated by the expansion of the global economy. (National Geographic Standard 11, p. 206)

UNIT 8 – PERSONAL FINANCE

• Lesson 40: Scarcity and Opportunity Costs. Apply concepts of scarcity and opportunity costs to personal financial decision making.
• Lesson 41: Marginal Benefit and Cost. Use examples and case studies to explain and evaluate the impact of marginal benefit and marginal cost of activity on choices and decisions.
• Lesson 42: Personal Finance Strategy. Develop a personal finance strategy for earning, spending, saving and investing resources.
• Lesson 43: Key Components of Personal Finance. Evaluate key components of personal finance including, money management, saving and investment, spending and credit, income, mortgages, retirement, investing (e.g., 401K, IRAs), and insurance.
• Lesson 44: Personal Decisions. Use a decision-making model (e.g., stating a problem, listing alternatives, establishing criteria, weighing options, making the decision, and evaluating the result) to evaluate the different aspects of personal finance including careers, savings and investing tools, and different forms of income generation.
• Lesson 45: Risk Management Plans. Develop a risk management plan that uses a combination of avoidance, reduction, retention, and transfer (insurance).