Economics Standard Two - Grades 6-8

Sample Activities

Students might gather information concerning the economic cost of homelessness to their city or town, and then research various potential policies for reducing or eliminating the problem. They would then be asked to evaluate each potential solution in terms of its benefits (reduction in crime, unemployment, or hunger) and it costs (tax increases, shelters in residential neighborhoods, larger governmental bureaucracies). They would present their information in the form of a report and recommendation on policy to the city council [Macroeconomics].

Aside from the obvious Civics connection of this activity, students would have to employ statistics which relate to the Math Standards in order to analyze their data.

Students could be randomly given pieces of macaroni to use as money, and would then participate in an auction of three items (pencil, marker, and an apple). The final price in macaronis would be recorded for each item. Students would be given additional macaroni and identical items would be auctioned in a second round. Students would compare the prices for the items in the two rounds and offer an explanation (inflation) for the increase in price. Then students could take a specific "market basket" of goods that a specific allowance might have purchased in 1990. Given a list of price increases for each year thereafter, students would determine how inflation would affect their buying power if their allowances remained constant over the period [Macroeconomics].

Students might interview household members in order to determine the prices at which parents, grandparents, or other family members purchased specified goods when they were teenagers. Students would then compare the costs of being a teenager today with that of being a teenager in the past [Macroeconomics].

to Economics Standard Two.