Virtual Economics for K-12 Teachers Professional Development Workshops

Monday, Jan. 14, 2008
3:00-6:00 p.m.
Bridgewater State College

Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008
9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Salem State College

Monday, Feb. 11, 2008
2:30-5:30 p.m.
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Tuesday May 6, 2008
3:00-6:00 p.m.
Bourne High School
George G. Watson Jr

Flier

The goal of the economics standards is to ensure that students understand economics well enough to make reasoned judgments about both personal economic questions and broader questions of economic policy. Through the standards, students will develop an economic way of thinking and problem solving in order to understand and apply basic economic principles to decisions they will make as consumers, members of the workforce, citizens, voters, and participants in a global marketplace. This type of critical thinking will prepare students to weigh not only the short-term effects of a decision, but also its long-term effects and possible unintended consequences. They will understand that because resources are scarce relative to wants, individuals and society must choose how to allocate goods and services among competing uses. Students will also understand that these choices and trade-offs significantly affect the quality of people's lives and explain historical developments and patterns, the results of trade, and the distribution of income and wealth in local, regional, national, and world economies. Understanding the process and components of economic reasoning will also provide a vital framework within which to analyze current issues and public policies, and to understand the complex relationships among economic, political, and cultural systems.

Listed below are a the Economics Concepts and Skills required by the Massachusetts Department of Education at each grade level.

Massachusetts Standards, Concepts and Skills in Economics

Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten
Living, Learning, and Working Together

Concepts and Skills
7. Use words relating to work, such as jobs, money, buying, and selling. (E)

8. Give examples of how family members, friends, or acquaintances use money directly or indirectly (e.g., credit card or check) to buy things they want. (E)

Grade 1
True Stories and Folk Tales from America and from Around the World

Grade 1 Concepts and Skills
9. Give examples of products (goods) that people buy and use. (E)

10. Give examples of services that people do for each other. (E)

11. Give examples of the choices people have to make about the goods and services they buy (e.g. a new coat, a tie, or a pair of shoes) and why they have to make choices (e.g., because they have a limited amount of money).

Grade 2
E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One

Grade 2 Concepts and Skills
9. Give examples of people in the school and community who are both producers and consumers. (E)

10. Explain what buyers and sellers are and give examples of goods and services that are bought and sold in their community. (E)

Grade 3
Massachusetts and its Cities and Towns: Geography and History

Grade 3 Concepts and Skills
8. Define what a tax is and the purposes for taxes, and with the help of their teachers and parents, give examples of different kinds of taxes (such as property, sales, or income taxes). (E)

9. Define specialization in jobs and businesses and give examples of specialized businesses in the community. (E)

10. Define barter, give examples of bartering (e.g., trading baseball cards with each other), and explain how money makes it easier for people to get things they want than barter. (E)

Barter is the direct exchange of goods and services between people without using money. Trade is the exchange of goods and services between people.

Grade 4
North American Geography
with Optional Standards for One Early Civilization

Grade 4 Concepts and Skills
7. Define and give examples of natural resources in the United States. (E)

8. Give examples of limited and unlimited resources and explain how scarcity compels people and communities to make choices about goods and services, giving up some things to get other things. (E)

9. Give examples of how the interaction of buyers and sellers influences the prices of goods and services in markets. (E)

Grade 5
United States History, Geography, Economics, and Government: Early Exploration to Westward Movement

Grade 5 Concepts and Skills
12. Give examples of the ways people save their money and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each. (E)

13. Define what an entrepreneur is (a person who has started a business seeking a profit) and give examples from colonial history of an entrepreneur (Peter Faneuil and Benjamin Franklin). (E)

14. Define profit and describe how profit is an incentive for entrepreneurs. (E)

15. Give examples of how changes in supply and demand affected prices in colonial history (e.g., fur, lumber, fish, and meat). (E, H)

Grade 6
World Geography

Grade 6 Concepts and Skills

11. Provide examples of currencies from several countries and explain why international trade requires a system for exchanging currency between nations. (E)

12. Give examples of products that are traded among nations, and examples of barriers to trade in these or other products. (E)

13. Define supply and demand and describe how changes in supply and demand affect prices of specific products. (E)

Supply is what producers or sellers want to sell or exchange. Demand is what consumers or buyers want to get in exchange or buy.

14. Identify the key elements of a market economy. (E)

In a market economy, the major decisions about production and distribution are made in a decentralized manner by individual households and business firms following their own self- interest.

15. Describe how different economic systems (traditional, command, market, mixed) try to answer the basic economic questions of what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce. (E)

16. Compare the standard of living in various countries today using gross domestic product per capita as an indicator. (E)

Grade 7
Ancient and Classical Civilizations in the Mediterranean to the Fall of the Roman Empire: Ideas that Shaped History

Grade 7 Concepts and Skills
8. Define and apply economic concepts learned in prekindergarten through grade 6:
producers, consumers, goods, services, buyers, sellers, natural resources, taxes, specialization, savings, entrepreneur, prices, markets, scarcity, trade, barter, money, medium of exchange, supply, and demand. (E)

Massachusetts Standards, Concepts and Skills in Economics
Grades 8-12

General Economics Skills
13. Define and use correctly mercantilism, feudalism, economic growth, and entrepreneur. (E)

14. 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 one alternative is chosen. (E)

15. Explain how financial markets, such as the stock market, channel funds from savers to investors. (E)

16. Define and use correctly gross domestic product, economic growth, recession, depression, unemployment, inflation, and deflation. (E)

17. Explain how opportunity costs and tradeoffs can be evaluated through an analysis of marginal costs and benefits. (E)

18. Explain how competition among sellers lowers costs and prices, and encourages producers to produce more. (E)

19. 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)

20. Describe how the earnings of workers are affected by the market value of the product produced and worker skills. (E)

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

22. 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)

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

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

U.S. Economics Skills
25. Explain the basic economic functions of the government in the economy of the United States. (E)

26. Examine the development of the banking system in the United States, and describe the organization and functions of the Federal Reserve System. (E)

27. Identify and describe laws and regulations adopted in the United States to promote economic competition. (E, H)

28. Analyze how federal tax and spending policies affect the national budget and the national debt. (E)