Parent Partnership Project: Students could talk with their parents about family budgets, considering both "fixed" and "discretionary" items. They could determine how many hours of work at a particular wage were necessary to pay for each. Students might even obtain a fictional job by using the advertisement section of the newspaper and play their own budget using the "money" earned [Microeconomics].
Students should be given a fixed amount of "income" for investment purposes, and allowed to create a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and other investments which they would then follow thoughout the year, trading to maximize their profits. Capital gains taxes and broker commissions should be assessed on any exchanges. Each student would keep a journal which not only recorded their trades but also documented their strategies of investing. At the end of the year, students would make oral presentations of their portfolios, with an explanation of their choices [Microeconomics].
Given a budget for the school prom, students would take data on expenses for various prom locations, bands, food and decorations and decide how to allocate the budget. Any money not used for the prom could be saved for another class function. Students would then discuss how this problem is similar to budget decisions made by their families, then school district, and the local government [Microeconomics].
Given a fictional news account of the U.S. government deciding to reduce significantly the amount of sugar which may be imported each year, students could analyze the effects of this decision on other markets such as domestic sugar, candy, corn, and the sugar market in the Caribbean. Using this experience, students could be assigned to find a newspaper article showing a change in a specific market and then perform an analysis of the effects this change might have on other markets [Microeconomics].
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to Economics Standard One.