Purpose/Overview
Everyone engages in economic behavior, but the principles behind those behaviors are generally not known. This leads to harmful decisions, both at an individual and a social level. This course serves to provide students a rudimentary introduction to basic economic principles in an effort to help them make more sense of the world around them. It is hoped that what is learned in this course will help inform their decision-making as they grow in age and wisdom. Being a cursory introduction, this course would serve to provide a semester-long course.
Course Includes
- 3 Course Sections: the first introduces the concepts, the second explores how the concepts work together, and the third explores how those concepts are put into practice
- 30 Video Lessons
- About 5 hours of instructional videos, and over 3 hours of review videos
- Lessons include contemporary examples, as well as examples from the past, enriching students' understanding of economics in history
- 30 Enrichment activities/exercises to help explore lesson content further
- 30 Video reviews, which review the Enrichment Activities
- 3 end-of-section assessments, with answer keys
Course Format
In Ancient Greece and Rome, students were exposed to a three-tiered approach. First, students learned "vocabulary", which included all the important terms and concepts of a discipline. After the vocabulary was mastered, the students explored "grammar", which included the rules of how to use the concepts earlier studies. Finally, students explored "rhetoric", the art of implementing the rules. Rhetoric was never finite, and encouraged the student to grow as they learned.
This course follows the same format:
Section 1 defines key principles in the study of economics
Section 2 looks at how those principles work, and how they are related to other concepts
Section 3 explores 5 different theories on how to apply the economic concepts discussed.
Target Audience
This course is oriented toward all students, grades 10-12, interested in a cursory understanding of economics.
Goals
By the end of this course, students will be able to simply define key economic principles, like supply, demand, price, value, and similar terms. They will also be able to apply various principles to situations they find themselves in. Further, they will be able to identify different theoretical approaches to applying those principles, and evaluate those approaches. Because the course draws from history, the student will also be able to explain various historical events related to economics. In the process of this course, students will develop and refine research skills.
Requirements
Being an introduction, but one that uses historical examples, the prospective student should have at the least studied US History a little.
COURSE CONTENT:
Section 1: Principles
What is Economics?--defines economics
Scarcity--defines the concept of scarcity
Efficiency and Effectiveness--defines these sister concepts, and looks at how they relate to scarcity
Resources--defines resources, and looks at different types of resources
Cost, Price, and Value--defines and differentiates between these related concepts
Supply and Demand--defines these mirror concepts
Markets--looks at what constitutes a "market" and introduces the "circular flow" diagram
Point of Diminishing Returns--looks at a concept often neglected, but important
Money--defines money, and looks, briefly, at how it came about
Section Assessment
Section 2: Mechanics
Money Supply--looks at how money supply is manipulated
Price--looks into where the prices you pay come from
Demand and Price--looks at the relationship between demand and price
Supply and Price--looks at the relationship between supply and price
Money Supply and Price--looks into the relationship between money supply and price
Inflation and Deflation--explores the terms inflation and deflation
Price Corrections--explores the concept of "price corrections" and their impact on peopel
Economic Cycle--looks at the cyclic nature of economics
Economic Indicators--introduces and explains some markers called indicators
Competition vs Monopoly--compares the opposing economic concepts of competition and monopoly
Competition--looks at how competition is supposed to work
Monopoly--looks at various ways monopolies are created, and their impacts
Modern Markets--builds on the basic market explored in Section 1
Banks--explores the role fo banks in economics
Government--explores the role of government in economics
Labor and Wages--looks at the need for labor, and the wages labor requires
Section Assessment
Section 3: Theories
The Free Market--explores the first market-based theory
Capitalism--looks into the second market-based theory
Social Capitalism--introduces a popular variation of market-based theory
Socialism--introduces and summarizes the initial alternative of market economics
Communism--introduces and summarizes the second most influential alternative to market economics
