Baltimore County Public Schools Division of Curriculum and Instruction
Economics and Public Issues
TEACHING SUGGESTIONSUnit Title / Marketplace
Theme Statement/
Enduring Knowledge / AIM 09, Students will examine market forces in order to determine their relationship to economic decision making.
Objective / KSI-A, determine the role of the factors of production in the marketplace
Alignment / The MarylandState Curriculum for Personal Financial Literacy Education
1.12.A Evaluate the financial choices that are made based on available resources, needs, and wants for goods and services.
1.12.A.1 Explain how scarcity and opportunity cost affect decision-making.
1.12.B Evaluate attitudes, assumptions, and patterns of behavior regarding financial decisions, and predict how they impact the achievement of financial goals.
1.12.B.3 Compare individual differences and influences on consumer decisions related to money including the impact on relationships.
1.12.E Evaluate the economic impacts of government, business, and consumer financial decisions.
1.12.E.3 Analyze the impacts of business, government, and consumer financial decisions on the individual, family, and community.
Learning Preferences / Visual / Auditory
Kinesthetic / Tactile
Field Dependent / Active
Field Independent / Reflective
Global / Sequential
Teaching Suggestions
Acceleration
Mastery / Introduce the factors of production by using the following questions as prompts for College Preparatory Strategy, Quickwrite:
Why can’t you buy everything you want?
Why can’t you do everything you want?
Remind students that scarcity is the fundamental economic problem. Review student responses and present the following:
Time, Income, Energy, Skills – which forms the acronym TIES. Inform students that because their resources are scarce they must make choices about how to use their resources.
Require students to rephrase their responses to the Quickwrite using time, income, energy, and skill.
Demonstrate scarcity by informing students that they will have one minute to write a list of all the items they need to buy at a grocery store to feed a family of four for an entire week. Time students for one minute. Ask:
How does scarcity force you to make choices?
Why weren’t you able to write everything you needed to buy?
What other factors could limit food choices for a family of four?
Identify the factors of production by reminding students that participants in the marketplace must make choices about how to use scarce resources. Provide students with a list of society’s scarce resources which are also referred to as the Factors of Production by presenting:
Capital, Entrepreneurship, Land, Labor – which forms the acronym CELL. Inform students that just like individuals, society must make choices about how to use their resources.
Ask:
How does scarcity force a business owner to make choices?
What examples can you give of choices a business might have to make?
Explain how the factors of production are necessary to produce goods and services by distributing copies of ”Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook.” from Pearson, Economics, Teacher’s Resource Library DVD, Unit 1, “Biography, “Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook” and directing students to read the biography Direct students to answer the questions and then review student responses. Analyze how an entrepreneur assembles the factors of production to produce a good or service by asking:
What was the incentive for Mark Zuckerberg to leave school and create Facebook?
What role did Mark Zuckerberg play in the creation of Facebook?
Demonstrate relationships among the factors of production by directing students to design a flow chart or sequence chain that demonstrates how Zuckerberg was able to use the factors of production to create Facebook.
Assessment / Assess students’ understanding of how the factors of production are necessary to produce goods and services by having them assume the role of an entrepreneur and identify the factors of production necessary to run a hair salon or diner. Direct students to complete Pearson, Economics: Essential Questions Journal Chapter 1 Activity II, “Needed: Land, Labor, Capital.” Page 6 from Teachers Resource Library DVD, click Add Criteria, Click Editable Worksheets, Click Essential Questions Journal, Chapter 1.
Materials / Pearson, Economics, Teacher’s Resource Library DVD
2011-12MP-1Economics and Public Issues