1. Students know that choices are made because resources are scarce and that the act of making choices imposes opportunity costs.
- Teen Talk: Students will understand that by making certain decisions they give up other possible opportunities in the process of choosing one possibility over another.
- Examples in the Classroom:
- Students will explain how economic choices made by individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies impose opportunity costs on societies as a whole.
- Students will analyze the impact of economic choices on the allocation of scarce resources.
- Service Learning Activities:
- Students will design and keep a budget for a local nonprofit agency to keep track of expenditures.
- Students will keep track of economic choices and opportunity costs for a week.
- Careers for Exploration:
- Financial Advisor, Loan Officer
- Classroom Exploration:
- Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Accounting
2. Students understand that there are incentives (wages, rent, interest, and profits) to use scarce human, capital, and natural resources efficiently.
- Teen Talk: Students will understand that there are outside influences projected upon them in their decisions to make use of certain resources in their community.
- Examples in the Classroom:
- Students will predict how incentives influence the choices made by businesses, governments and societies.
- Students will describe how incentives allow individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies to use scarce human, capital, and natural resources more efficiently to meet economic goals.
- Service Learning Activities:
- Students will start a small business to help the elderly with their yard chores and accept non-monetary rewards for their actions.
- Careers for Exploration:
- Entrepreneur, Business Leader
- Classroom Exploration:
- Business Management, Accounting
3. Students understand that resources can be used in many ways and that the ability to analyze the full costs of alternatives will lead to productive use of resources today and in the future.
- Teen Talk: Students will understand that there are many different uses for resources in today's society and that with thoughtful consideration of the costs of alternatives a more productive choice can be made.
- Examples in the Classroom:
- Students will analyze how technological change can affect long-range productivity
- Students will evaluate the present and future opportunity costs and economic risks in the use of productive resources associated with investments
- Service Learning Activities:
- Students will design a long range forecast of activities and expenditures for a local nonprofit to help decide what would be efficient.
- Careers for Exploration:
- Research and Development of new products, Inventor
- Classroom Exploration:
- Programming, Investment Banking
4. Students understand that different economic systems employ different means to produce, distribute, and exchange goods and services.
- Teen Talk: Students will understand that there are a variety of ways to produce and distribute the end products of a company in today's market.
- Examples in the Classroom:
- Students will evaluate economic systems by their ability to achieve broad societal goals such as freedom, efficiency, equity, security, employment, stability, and economic growth.
- Service Learning Activities:
- Students will teach foreign children the economic system of the U.S. (capitalism) and how it differs from their own.
- Careers for Exploration:
- Historian, Economics Teacher
- Classroom Exploration:
- History, Economics, World History, International Forum
5. Students understand the fundamental characteristics of the United States economic system, private property, profits, competition, and the market system and how they are interrelated.
- Teen Talk: Students will understand the economic functioning of the United States as far as public and private rights and the basics of free enterprise.
- Examples in the Classroom:
- Students will recognize that changes in the number of producers, production costs, or the prices of substitute and complementary products cause shifts in supply.
- Students will explain how market clearing (equilibrium) price is determined.
- Students will recognize that changes in income, tastes, preferences, and the prices of substitutes and complements can cause shifts in demand.
- Service Learning Activities:
- Students will begin a tutoring program for elementary students in which they learn basic economic concepts.
- Careers for Exploration:
- Chariman of the Federal Reserve Board, Presidential Economic Advisor
- Classroom Exploration:
- Geography, United States History, Economics
6. Students understand that government actions and policies influence the operation of economics including taxes, spending, and regulations.
- Teen Talk: Students will understand that government decisions in the arena of economics can directly affect their lives through taxes and regulations.
- Examples in the Classroom:
- Students will interpret measurements of inflation rates and unemployment and relating these to the general economic health of the national economy.
- Students will analyze the impact of government taxing and spending actions on the budget deficit.
- Students will compare and contrast different types of taxes, including progressive, regressive, and proportional taxes.
- Service Learning Activities:
- Students will volunteer at a nonprofit tax management agency to help the less fortunate file taxes.
- Careers for Exploration:
- IRS Tax Collector, Washington Lobbyist
- Classroom Exploration:
- Forensics, Accounting, American Government
7. Students understand that the exchange of goods and services creates economic interdependence and change.
- Teen Talk: Students will understand that through the cycle of making and buying goods that each part of the economy is linked to each other and a change in one creates change in all.
- Examples in the classroom:
- Students will illustrate the international differences in resources, productivity, and the prices that are a basis for international trade.
- Students will recognize that a nation has a comparative advantage when it can produce a product at a lower opportunity cost than its trading partner.
- Students will explain why nations often restrict trade by using quotas, tariffs, and non- tariff barriers to trade (for example, cars entering the U.S. must have a catalytic converter).
- Service Learning Activities:
- Students will create and manage a student-run mail that only has students as the business owners or tenants.
- Careers for Exploration:
- Foreign Trade Minister, International Business person
- Classroom Exploration:
- International Forum, Geography, World History, Foreign Languages
8. Students understand how a country's monetary system facilitates the exchange of resources.
- Teen Talk: Students will understand the flow of currency used in the purchasing of goods and services that fuel the economy.
- Examples in the Classroom:
- Students will analyze how international trade promotes specialization and increases world output.
- Students will explain why inflation is a general rise in all prices.
- Students will identify how monetary policies can affect exchange rates and international trade.
- Service Learning Activities:
- Students will volunteer at the local mint and help stamp and distribute money to banks.
- Students will graph exchange rates and hypothesize how they fluctuate
- Careers for Exploration:
- Chairperson at a Federal Mint, Bank teller
- Classroom Exploration: