Honors Civics / Economics

HONORS CIVICS / ECONOMICS

MS. MCANULLA

2010-2011 SCHOOL YEAR

C-29

The first part of the course will deal with Civics. Civics is the study of the rights and responsibilities of an American citizen. The “We the People” curriculum will be used and succeeding in the state / national competition will be the focus. The second part of the course will investigate Economics. Economics is the study of how societies determine the best use of limited resources. A strong emphasis will be placed on macro- and micro-economics, economic systems, and personal finance. The course will then end with a discussion of the environment, where the Civics and Economics information will be applied to GEO 2. While ALL the Social Studies DSTP standards (Civics, Geography, Economics, and History) will be addressed through out the course, Civics Standards 1 through 4 and Economics Standards 1 through 4 along with Geography 2 will be stressed.

The text books that will be used through out this course are “ We the People: The Citizens and the Constitution” and “Civics Today: Citizenship, Economics, and You”. The following topics will be the make-up of the course:

¯  The Foundations of American Government – Constitutional Government

¯  Rights and responsibilities of a U.S. citizen.

¯  Politics – ideologies and roles of political parties. How do government actions really happen?

¯  Voting and elections

¯  Federalism – the role of the different levels of government – National, State, and Local.

¯  Criminal vs. civil law.

¯  How do other governments develop and thrive? How does the U.S. interact with these other forms of government?

¯  Microeconomics- Market economy/ capitalism – how does my dollar impact prices?

¯  Macroeconomics- how does government and big business interacts? Why doesn’t the government just print more money for everyone?

¯  What are other types of economies and how do they work?

¯  What can be the expected consequences of shifting from one form of economics to another? If a million Chinese are doing communism, can it be wrong?

¯  Current events and their impact on Civics and Economics.

¯  How do humans impact the environment? Can a balance be found between human wants / economics and the environmental well-being of the planet?

¯  Preparation for the DSTP in Social Studies, Reading and Writing

A sampling of the essential questions that will be asked through out the course are:

Government

·  Why might different governments around the world have different purposes?

·  Why are governments around the world structured differently?

·  How might the different structures of governments around the world reflect different ideologies, cultures, values, and histories?

Politics

·  Why do political parties exist?

·  Why are America’s political parties “extra-constitutional” rather than constitutional?

·  How can we account for the two-party system?

·  How has the United States government been able to remain effective through over two centuries of change?

Citizenship

·  Why are citizens expected to keep themselves informed in a representative democracy?

·  Why are citizens expected to participate in a representative democracy?

·  Why are citizens usually expected to uphold the laws of the land in a representative democracy?

Participation

·  Why is it important to learn the skills and processes under which government organizations operate?

Macroeconomics

·  Why are there prices in a market economy?

·  How are prices determined?

·  How do markets operate?

Macroeconomics

·  How are various parts of the economy related to each other?

·  How does the business cycle reflect economic conditions?

·  What causes the conditions that create unemployment and inflation in an economy?

·  How do these economic conditions impact individuals and the economy as a whole?

·  Why and how does the central bank operate?

·  Why do governments tax and spend?

·  How do taxes change behavior?

Economics Systems

·  Why and how have different economic systems changed how they answer the three basic economic questions?

·  How do changes from transition from a command economy to a market economy affect individuals and the economy as a whole in the

achievement of economic goals?

International Trade

·  How and why does the distribution of world resources, political stability, national trade policies, and the flow of investments affect patterns of international trade?

Environment

·  How can the Earth’s physical environment be considered as a set of interconnected systems?

·  How does the way people perceive the environment affect way they respond to, and alter, the physical environment at all scales – local to global?