Curriculum: Economics

Social Studies Department – Chicopee Public Schools

 

Overview: This course examines the allocation of scarce resources and the economic reasoning used govern­ment agencies and by people as consumers, producers, savers, investors, workers, and voters. Key elements include the study of scarcity, supply and demand, market structures, the role of government, national income determination, money and the role of financial institutions, economic stabilization, and trade.

 

Curriculum goals: Grade 9-12 key skills and concepts

 

The students should be able to:

History and geography

1.            Apply the skills of pre-kindergarten through grade seven.

2.            Identify multiple ways to express time relationships and dates (for example, 1066 AD is the same as 1066 CE, and both refer to a date in the eleventh or 11th  century, which is the same as the 1000s). Identify countries that use a different calendar from the one used in the U.S. and explain the basis for the difference. (H)

3.            Interpret and construct timelines that show how events and eras in various parts of the world are related to one another. (H)

4.            Interpret and construct charts and graphs that show quantitative information. (H, C, G, E)

5.            Explain how a cause and effect relationship is different from a sequence or correlation of events. (H, C, E)

6.            Distinguish between long-term and short-term cause and effect relationships. (H, G, C, E)

7.            Show connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and ideas and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. (H, G, C, E)

8.            Interpret the past within its own historical context rather than in terms of present-day norms and values. (H, E, C)

9.     Distinguish intended from unintended consequences. (H, E, C)
10. Distinguish historical fact from opinion. (H, E, C)

  1. Using historical maps, locate the boundaries of the major empires of world history at the height of their powers. (H, G)

 

Civics and government

  1. Define and use correctly the following words and terms: Magna Carta, parliament, habeas corpus, monarchy, and absolutism. (C)

 

General economics skills

  1. Define and use correctly mercantilism, feudalism, economic growth, and entrepreneur. (E)
  2. Explain how people or communities examine and weigh the benefits of each alternative when making a choice and that opportunity costs are those benefits that are given up once an alternative is chosen. (E)
  3. Explain how financial markets, such as the stock market, channel funds from savers to investors. (E)
  4. Define and use correctly gross domestic product, economic growth, recession, depression, unemployment, inflation, and deflation. (E)
  5. Explain how opportunity costs and tradeoffs can be evaluated through an analysis of marginal costs and benefits. (E)
  6. Explain how competition among sellers lowers costs and prices, and encourages producers to produce more. (E)
  7. Describe the role of buyers and sellers in determining the equilibrium price, and use supply and demand to explain and predict changes in quantity and price. (E)
  8. Describe how the earnings of workers are affected by the market value of the product produced and worker skills. (E)

20.    Identify the causes of inflation and explain who benefits from inflation and who suffers from inflation. (E)

21.    Define and distinguish between absolute and comparative advantage, and explain how most trade occurs because of comparative advantage in the production of a particular good or service. (E)

22.    Explain how changes in exchange rates affect balance of trade and the purchasing power of people in the United States and other countries. (E)

23. Differentiate between fiscal and monetary policy. (E)

  1. Explain the basic economic functions of the government in the economy of the United States. (E)
  2. Examine the development of the banking system in the United States, and describe the organization and functions of the Federal Reserve System. (E)
  3. Identify and describe laws and regulations adopted in the United States to promote economic competition. (E, H)
  4. Analyze how federal tax and spending policies affect the national budget and the national debt. (E)

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEEK 1

Standards: 11

 

  1. Unlimited wants and limited resources
  2. Opportunity costs, law of supply and demand
  3. Surpluses, shortages and equilibrium

 

Open-ended Question: 

Why might a government grant subsidies to certain individuals or businesses?  Should U.S. taxpayers fund subsidies?

 

WEEK 2

Standards: 11, 12

 

  1. Role of profits in the economy, consumer demand
  2. Forms of business organization, fixed costs
  3. Variable costs, how businesses obtain money

 

Open-ended Question: 

Imagine that you own a photo-processing business.  What production issues must you consider to make your business a success?  Explain how each issue would relate to your business.

 

WEEK 3

Standards: 15

 

  1. Perfect competition, monopolies, and horizontal combinations
  2. Vertical combinations, economies and diseconomies of scale
  3. Workable competition and anti-trust policies

 

Open-ended Question:  What monopolies exist in your school?  Consider how lunches, yearbooks, and other products are sold at your school.

 

WEEK 4

Standards: 11, 13

 

  1. Labor unions in the economy, impact of the minimum wage
  2. Gross domestic product, underground economy, inflation
  3. Costs of unemployment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open-ended Question: 

Suppose that you have a part-time job and the government announces a decision to eliminate the minimum wage.  Describe how your income might be affected by the removal of this price floor.  How would you respond to any changes in your income? 

 

WEEK 5

Standards: 15

 

  1. Variety of economic systems, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Fascism, a broad overview of each
  2. Economic theory vs. reality, boom or bust cycle

 

Open-ended Question: 

What are the three types of mixed economies?  Describe the extent of government involvement in each economic system.

 

WEEK 6

Standards: 12

 

  1. Government decisions, economic success
  2. The laissez faire system, the classical theory
  3. Keynesian philosophy, supply side economics

 

Open-ended Question:

What factors encouraged the U.S. government to abandon its laissez-faire economic policies in the 1880s?    Why do you think these factors occurred?

 

WEEK 7

Standards: 11, 15

 

  1. Economists and political philosophers, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Edward Bellamy, John Maynard Keynes, Norman Thomas, Joseph Schumpter and Milton Friedman.

 

Open-ended Question: 

In your own words, explain how the Internet can be considered both a product and a promoter of free enterprise as practiced in the United States.  Provide examples from an Internet search. 

 

 

WEEK 8

Standards: 12, 13, 15

 

  1. Colonialism and the entrepreneur, The East India Company
  2. Calvinism and business, the entrepreneurial personality
  3. American emphasis on “success in a competitive occupational system”, with money income as the primary

 

Open-ended Question: 

Why might a person become an entrepreneur?  What characteristics might someone need to be a successful entrepreneur?

 

WEEK 9

Standards: 13

 

  1. Economic change in Massachusetts 1600’s to the present
  2. Shays’ Rebellion, Hamilton vs. Jefferson, U.S. economy
  3. Early Massachusetts Industry, fishing, farming, textiles

 

Open-ended Question: 

How did the conflict over the First and Second Banks of the United States reflect Federalist and Anti-federalist views of government?  Be detailed and specific. 

 

WEEK 10

Standards:  13, 15

 

  1. Impact of inventions - 18th & 19th century United States economy
  2. Development of the textile industry, Lowell Plan, Chicopee
  3. Government support of business, land grants, banking
  4. Railroad subsidies, taxation, 19th Century labor policy

 

Open-ended Question: 

Describe the factors that encouraged Congress to pass the Budget and Accounting Act in 1921.  What factors might encourage additional budgetary reforms during the twenty-first century?

 

WEEK 11

Standards: 11, 13, 15

 

  1. Economic impact reconstruction, immigration, North & South
  2. Concentration of economic power, monopolies, buyouts,
  1. Holding Companies, commodities, stocks and bonds

 

 

Open-ended Question: 

How did the turmoil of the Civil War encourage the development of a national banking system?

 

WEEK 12

Standards: 12, 14, 15

 

  1. Social impact of new industries, automobiles, electrical appliances, mass production, advertising, easy credit
  2. Skilled industrial workers, middle class buying power
  3. The Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II
  4. Deficit financing, Social Security, entitlements

 

Open-ended Question: 

Where would you choose to do your banking – a commercial bank, savings and loan association, mutual savings bank, or credit union?  Explain your answer.

 

WEEK 13

Standards: 13, 14, 15

 

  1. U.S. – World’s largest economy, size, current rates of unemployment, inflation and interest rates
  2. Free trade vs. protectionism, understand why nations trade
  3. Farming, Massachusetts textile industry

 

Open-ended Question: 

What are some possible disadvantages of a zero unemployment rate?  Explain. 

 

WEEK 14

Standards: 11, 12, 15

 

  1. Macroeconomics and international trade, gross national product
  2. Domestic product according to, equilibrium income and output
  3. Money supply, interest and income, inflation
  4. Unemployment; capital, labor and productivity

 

Open-ended Question: 

Explain how entrepreneurship and technology relate to natural, human, and capital resources.

 

 

 

 

 

WEEK 15

Standards: 13

 

  1. Role of the United States government in the economy, protection of consumer rights
  2. Property rights, taxation, borrowing and government spending
  3. Impact of United States fiscal policies on individuals, production of goods and services

 

Open-ended Question: 

Why is property tax controversial?  Would you prefer to live in a municipality that levies high property taxes or in a municipality that levies low property taxes?  Explain your answer.

 

WEEK 16

Standards: 13

 

  1. Globalization of the American economy, management of trade by international organizations
  2. Measures of trade, networks of economic interdependence
  3. Specialization, competition, access to labor, capital and natural resources
  4. Technology, transfer, transportation, communication and multi-national corporations

 

Open-ended Question: 

Explain how technology is used to create new capital goods.  Provide an example from your own experience.

 

WEEK 17

Standards: 12, 15

 

  1. Foreign exchange market [FX] basic concepts and elements of international finance
  2. Relationship between trade balance and capital flow;
  3. International lending and investment
  4. How foreign exchange rates are determined
  5. Floating and fixed currency rates
  6. The role of central banks in the currency market

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open-ended Question: 

If the value of a currency such as the British pound increases, what is the effect on the value of the U.S. dollar?  Explain your answer. 

 

WEEK 18

Standards: 13, 14

 

  1. Turbo – Capitalism and the globalization of the American Economy
  2. Free trade zones, EC, NAFTA, etc.
  3. Comparison of American political and economic systems to other nations including Japan, China and leading western European countries in terms of degree of government control

 

Open-ended Question: 

Explain how economic cooperation among nations has led to increased international trade.  

 

WEEK 19

Standards: 13, 14

  1. Entrepreneurship, productivity, health and standards of living, quality of life
  2. Evaluate different development strategies of North & South Korea, Singapore, China, Brazil and Mexico.

 

WEEK 20

Standards: 11 - 15

 

  1. Review
  2. Final Exam

 

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