Unit 1 Economics

CTE Competencies Covered:

Demonstrating Workplace Readiness Skills: Personal Qualities and People Skills
1: Demonstrate positive work ethic.
2: Demonstrate integrity.
3: Demonstrate teamwork skills.
4: Demonstrate self-representation skills.

Demonstrating Workplace Readiness Skills: Professional Knowledge and Skills
8: Demonstrate effective speaking and listening skills.
9: Demonstrate effective reading and writing skills.
10: Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
15: Demonstrate time-, task-, and resource-management skills.

Demonstrating Workplace Readiness Skills: Technology Knowledge and Skills
18: Demonstrate proficiencies with technologies common to a specific occupation.
19: Demonstrate information technology skills.
20: Demonstrate an understanding of Internet use and security issues.

Developing Basic Economic Concepts and Structures
34: Describe how consumers, businesses, and government decision-makers face scarcity of resources and must make trade-offs and incur opportunity costs.
35: Explain that economic choices often have long-term, unintended consequences.
36: Describe how effective decision-making requires comparing the additional costs (marginal costs) and additional benefits (marginal benefits).

Class Materials:

Activities:

Video:

  • Intro to Economics
  • The Choices we Make
  • Opportunity Cost Definition and Real-World Example
  • Video: Discuss Diminishing Marginal Utility Video of DMU (start at 1:03)
  • I Love Lucy Famous Chocolate Scene
  • Do Incentives Matter for the Economy?
  • Trade can make everyone better off
  • How to Make a $1500 sandwich in 6 months -(beware they do kill the chicken) can skip from 2:30 to 2:43
  • Unintended Consequences – Stossel In The Classroom