ECO 2050-01 – Principles of Microeconomics (Service Learning Section)

Fall 2013 (MWF 10:40 A.M. - 11:50A.M.)

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Daniel Hall

Office: Phillips 211Office phone: 336-841-9104

Office Hours: M-F 2-3P.M., or by appointment

E-mail:

CREDITS: 4 creditsLOCATION: Phillips 222

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Theories of consumer and producer behavior, including demand and supply, elasticity, and consumer utility theory. Introduction to pure competition, monopoly, and other market structures in which businesses operate. Discussion of issues such as mergers and antitrust policy, regulation, cost-benefit theory, externalities and public goods, resource markets, poverty and income inequality, and other applied microeconomic issues. Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing

** This course requires a Service Learning (SL) placement outside of class.**

Through a service-learning pedagogy, students will experience the civic responsibility approach to these economic issues, reflecting critically on the intertwining ethical and economic questions that arise. Civic responsibility will also be compared with market-based and government-based approaches, determining whether these approaches are complimentary or in competition for resources. A minimum of 25 service hours on projects selected for the course is required.
4 credit hours

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS:

Sapling 1-Semester Access with eText: Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, Modern Principles: Microeconomics, 2nd ed. (New York: Worth Publishers, 2013),
ISBN 1-4641-4944-5[1]

Cornuelle, Richard .C. Reclaiming the American Dream: The Role of Private Individuals and Voluntary Associations. (New York: Random House, 1965)[2]

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

  1. Use the demand and supply graph to predict equilibrium price and quantity, and their changes over time.
  2. Describe and be able to explain the price elasticity of demand concept, and its numerical interpretation.
  3. Explain the concept of utility and the rules for utility maximization.
  4. Identify the following for a purely competitive industry:
  5. marginal revenue/demand curve
  6. marginal cost curve
  7. average total cost curve
  8. point of maximum profit and the profit-maximizing rule
  9. Describe company behavior in monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly industries.
  10. Debate the benefits and costs of mergers and antitrust regulation.
  11. Describe cost-benefit analysis and its applications.
  12. Describe public goods and externalities, and their policy relevance.
  13. Describe wage determination in a purely competitive labor market.
  14. Explain important concepts in poverty and income distribution analysis.
  15. Apply microeconomics tools and logic in analyzing other public policy issues, as assigned by the professor.

SERVICE LEARNING RELATED COURSE OBJECTIVES:

  1. Synthesize knowledge from the theory of the course and the practical service experience to reflect on one’s role in civic life. Examples include:
  2. Identify microeconomic decisions of service partners you work with and people you serve while performing the service component of the course.
  3. Discuss the alternative of civic organizations providing public goods.
  4. Identify how market-based, government-based, and civic-based approaches can be complementary and how they may be in competition.
  5. Discuss whether over-reliance on market and government provision of public goods has led to reduced civic responsibility.
  6. Explain important concepts in poverty and income distribution analysis.
  7. Explain the microeconomics of homelessness.
  8. Explain the microeconomics of discrimination.
  9. Foster in ethical reasoning skills needed through practices that require first-hand service and leadership in their communities. [All of the examples from Service Learning Objective #1 and related service activities have ethical components we will explore. This objective can be interpreted in any of three ways]:
  10. The ability to analyze and discuss their own core beliefs and the origin of those beliefs as these relate to their civic identity
  11. The ability to recognize complex ethical issues
  12. The ability to state an ethical position and defend it well against another ethical position

STUDENT SERVICE LEARNING RESPONSIBILITIES:

All students in the course are required to spend 25 hours in service to the organization with which they are paired in the course. Before beginning your service hours, you will be introduced to representatives of the organizations, receive an orientation to service learning as a pedagogy, agree to the Service Learning Code of Professional and Ethical Behavior, and sign a Partnership Agreement. You must begin your service learning experience by FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1ST, as it is necessary for your first reflection.

All students in the course will be required to abide by the policies set forth by the HPU Service Learning Program in its Service Learning Code of Professional and Ethical Behavior and Partnership Agreement. Failure to abide by these policies will be treated as a breach of the University’s Honor Code and you may be referred to the Honor Council for punishment. You are expected to take the initiative to complete your required service hours and you are responsible for the penalties to your grade if you do not complete the hours.

Service learning is not an internship or simply volunteering – it is a pedagogical model that will deepen your understanding of the course material by exposing you first-hand to the ethical issues we discuss in class. You will perform service work that aids our local community and that service work will advance your thinking about ethics, education, and microeconomic issues.

The following Venn Diagram illustrates the three central components of an academic service-learning pedagogy and how it is different from other activities. The Diagram is a synthesis of two sources: and

SERVICE PARTNERS:

Open Door Ministries
400 N. Centennial St, High Point, NC, (336) 885-0191

  • Cooking and serving dinner for the homeless.
  • Interviewing the homeless so they can receive assistance from Open Door Ministries.
  • Assisting Open Door Ministries with their CROP Hunger Walk, Feast of Caring fundraisers, and construction projects at Arthur Cassell House.
  • Plan new service and fundraising projects with members of Open Door Ministries.

Civitan International
P.O. Box 130744, Birmingham, Alabama 35213-0744, (205) 591-8910

  • Assist the High Point University Campus Civitan Club (Faculty Advisor: Dr. Daniel Hall) with their service and fundraising projects.
  • Assist the High Point Civitan Club (President Tim Reid: ) with their service and fundraising projects.
  • Assist Civitan International in solving their long-term membership problems by promoting new Campus Civitan and Young Professional Civitan clubs.
  • Plan new service and fundraising projects with members of Civitan International.

SERVICE LEARNING COMMUNITY LIAISON:

(Casey McCully, phone and email will be provided seperately)

Our liaison will help you log and keep track of your service hours and help you coordinate with serving our partners. Since the liaison is here to help you complete your service requirements for this course, you are expected to communicate clearly and quickly with him/her. Any falsifying of service hours will be considered a violation of the Honor Code.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:

Students who require classroom accommodations due to a diagnosed disability must submit the appropriate documentation to Disability Support in the Office of Academic Development, 4th Floor Smith Library. A student’s need for accommodations must be made at the beginning of a course. Accommodations are not retroactive.

CLASSROOM ETIQUETTE:

Be polite and civil to each other. And follow these rules for electronic devices: Laptops and other computers are to be used in the classroom for note taking or other teacher-assigned activities. No text messaging, web browsing or e-mailing during class time. Do not accept phone calls, or use your phone for picture-taking. Any such activities during a test (in particular) will be construed as cheating.

COURSE EVALUATIONS:

All students are expected to complete course evaluations in the week preceding final exams. These evaluations, which are delivered online, are an important part of High Point University’s assessment program, so your cooperation in completing them is greatly appreciated. As the end of the semester or academic session draws near, you will receive information from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment about how to complete the online evaluations.IMPORTANT NOTE: All communications from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment will be sent to your High Point University e-mail account, so please be sure to check and maintain your account regularly.

ATTENDANCE POLICY:

The Phillips School of Business at HPU has adopted a universal attendance policy. Following the third absence, a student will be placed on Class Attendance Probation. If the student misses one more class after being placed on probation, the student may be dropped from the class with a grade of W, WA, or FA as appropriate (see 2013-2014 Undergraduate Bulletin, p. 46).Attendance will be recorded on Blackboard.

HONOR CODE:

Preamble: We, the students of High Point University, believe that honesty and integrity are essential to student development, whether personal, social, or academic. Therefore, we assert that:

Every student is honor-bound to refrain from conduct which is unbecoming of a High Point University student and which brings discredit to the student and/or to the University;

  • Every student is honor-bound to refrain from cheating;
  • Every student is honor-bound to refrain from collusion;
  • Every student is honor-bound to refrain from plagiarism;
  • Every student is honor-bound to confront a violation of the University Honor Code;
  • Every student is honor-bound to report a violation of the University Honor Code.

Full details of the High Point University Honor Code are found here:

COURSE STRUCTURE:

This course is a combination of lectures, student discussion, experiments, and service activities. I encourage students to ask questions during class both about material covered in class and related current or historical events. You will be responsible on examinations for all classroom material.

GRADING:

Exams during the period will cover the material that has been covered up to that exam date. Graded assignments will be displayed on Blackboard. Your course grade will be determined as follows.

Category / Weight
Service Reflections / 15 %
Service Presentation / 15 %
Homework / 10 %
Exams Average / 60 %

GRADING SCALE:

Weighted Average Interval / QP / Weighted Average Interval / QP
96 ≤ A+ / 4.0 / 70 ≤ C < 77 / 2.0
90 ≤ A < 96 / 4.0 / 69 ≤ C- < 70 / 1.7
89 ≤ A- < 90 / 3.7 / 67 ≤ D+ < 69 / 1.3
87 ≤ B+ < 89 / 3.3 / 60 ≤ D < 67 / 1.0
80 ≤ B < 87 / 3.0 / 57 ≤ D- < 60 / 0.7
79 ≤ B- < 80 / 2.7 / 0 ≤ F < 57 / 0.0
77 ≤ C+ < 79 / 2.3

QP stands for quality points per semester hour listed on your transcript. Note, if an A+ is earned, A+ would show up on your transcript although it has the same 4 QP as an A. I reserve the right to adjust this scale in favor of the whole class, but I will not adjust on an individual basis. As indicated by the inequality signs I do not round-up weighted averages.

OUT OF CLASS WORK: In addition to attending class, students are expected to spend at least 2 hours each week engaged in out of class work (i.e. reading, studying, doing homework, etc.) for every hour of credit earned in this course.

SERVICE REFLECTIONS (15%):

For each service event or job you complete with one of our community partners, you will have to write a 500-1000 word service reflection. This reflection is more than simply summarizing your experience, but it also requires applying your experience to the microeconomic and ethical concepts behind the social issues we have covered in class. In many cases I will ask you specific questions or give a format to guide your reflection. For service projects lasting multiple days I will designate checkpoints and you will write a reflection after reaching each checkpoint. Each service reflectionis due one week after the related service project/checkpoint on calendar. There is a 10% late penalty per week late. If you are late on your service learning hours, then you are late on your service reflection! See KEY DATES to make sure you are keeping up with your service hours.

SERVICE PRESENTATION (15%):

Depending on where you intend to spend most of your community service hours, at the end of the semester you willgive a service presentation to Open Door Ministries or to members of the High Point Civitan and High Point University Campus Civitan clubs. In a solo or group presentation (maximum of 4 people), you will describe your service experience and the economics and ethical issues behind it. I will tailor a grading rubric based on your topic, its difficulty, and the number of people in your group.

SAPLING LEARNING HOMEWORK (10%):

Sapling homework assignments will be assigned through the Sapling software, and the due dates for the assignments will listed on your Sapling homepage next to the assignment link. Each Sapling assignment contains a variety of problems. There is no limit on attempts but there is a small penalty for each successive attempt. If you get part of a problem wrong then the software will give you feedback. As time permits, some class time will be used to give you an opportunity to work on your homework in teams with my assistance in class. Sapling will submit your assignment “as is” on the due date.

Instructions on how to get set up with Sapling:

  1. Go to
  2. Set up your account.
  3. If you already have a Sapling Learning account, log in then skip to step 3.
  4. If you have Facebook account, you can use it to quickly create a SaplingLearning account. Click the blue button with the Facebook symbol on it (just to the left of the username field). The form will auto-fill with information from your Facebook account (you may need to log into Facebook in the popup window first). Choose a password and timezone, accept the site policy agreement, and click "Create my new account". You can then skip to step 3.
  5. Otherwise, click "Create account". Supply the requested information and click "Create my new account". Check your email (and spam filter) for a message from Sapling Learning and click on the link provided in that email.
  6. Find your course in the list (you may need to expand the subject and term categories) and click the link.
  7. Select a payment option and follow the remaining instructions.
  8. Once you have registered and enrolled, you can log in at any time to complete or review your homework assignments.
  9. During sign up - and throughout the term - if you have any technical problems or grading issues, send an email to explaining the issue. The Sapling support team is almost always more able (and faster) to resolve issues than your instructor. You may also contact our Tech Teaching Assistant Judge Hensley at
    (512) 22-5538.

EXAMS (60%):

You will take a total of six exams according to the schedule below. To allow for some absences and “bad days”, I will exclude the two lowest exam scores from calculation of your exams average. This means that each exam is potentially worth about 15% of your final grade since 4 of the 6 will be included in the calculation of your exams average. Exams will contain 10-20 questions (multiple choice, true/false, graphing, short answer).

FACEBOOK GROUP and EXAM BONUS POINTS:

I have set up a Facebook Group[3] for this section, group link that you are welcome to post on at any time (even during class). At the beginning of each non-exam class period, I will post a link to an article, video, a question, or a poll and ask the students to comment. Students must respond[4] to the post in class[5] within the allotted time to receive 1 bonus point on their upcoming exam. Students can earn up to 1 additional bonus point on your exam per module by posting a link to a relevant article, thoughtful commenting on an article linked, or answering a student question about a concept, assignment, or upcoming exam (questions & answers must be unique to qualify). You can earn up to approximately 6 bonus points per exam in total.

LEARNING MODULES (we will cover one module approximately every 2-3weeks):

Module / Modern Principles Chapters
  1. Supply, Demand, and Market Equilibrium
/ 3-4
  1. Public Goods, Government, and Ethics
/ 18-20
  1. Elasticity, Labor Markets, and Utility Maximization
/ 5, 17, 23
  1. Market Efficiency and Externalities
/ 7, 10
  1. Competition: Costs, Profit, and the Invisible Hand
/ 11-12
  1. Imperfect Competition: Monopolies, Oligopolies, and Monopolistic Competition
/ 13, 15-16

KEY DATES (due dates for each Homework are listedon Sapling and always fall on the Module Exam Dates):

8/21 / First Class Day
8/26 / Last Day to Add or Drop without record
9/4 / Exam #1
9/18 / Exam #2
10/2 / First 5 hours of Service Reflections Due
10/2 / Exam #3
10/14 – 10/18 / FALL BREAK
10/23 / Exam #4
10/25 / Last Day to Drop with a W grade
11/6 / Exam #5
11/16 / Service Presentation to Civitan International
11/20 / First 15 hours of Service Reflections Due
Service Presentation Topic and Group Due
11/20 / Exam #6
11/27 – 11/29 / THANKSGIVING BREAK
12/4 / Last Class Day
12/5 / Reading Day: All remaining Service Reflections Due
12/11 / Service Presentation to Open Door Ministries
(Final Exam Time: 8-11 A.M.)

1

[1] You can purchase this package at the bookstore, but if you prefer a paper text instead of an eText you can purchase the text separately and purchase 1-semester access without the eText through Sapling’s website.

[2] I am awaiting a grant decision that will purchase books for this class.

[3] If link does not work you can search “Dr. Hall’s ECO-2050-SL Class F13” in Facebook.

[4] Simply “liking” the post is not sufficient. You should take the time to give a thoughtful response.

[5] I reserve the right to make exceptions and let a student post outside class, provided the student provides a good reason and can notify me well in advance.