Topic 2 - Markets
- Listen to Markets - Lecture 1. You may access the file from the web page by clicking here. (Note that you must have RealPlayer installed in order to view the lesson presentation.)
- Read the teacher guide and view the video of the classroom activity, In the Chips, from the file chips.rm (not available in this preview.)
- Listen to Markets - Lecture 2. To access the file from the web site, click here. (Note that you must have RealPlayer installed in order to view the lesson presentation.)
Assignment
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Read the outline for unit 2, mentally comparing it to the organization of your own classroom presentations on how markets work and the mechanics of supply and demand.
Read the full text, including benchmarks for grades 4, 8, and 12 of National Voluntary Content Standards 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. (When you have finished reading, use the "back" button at the top of the screen to return to this window.) Note that the grade 12 benchmarks assume student mastery of the 4th and 8th grade concepts. If you are not already familiar with your own district's course scope and sequence, investigate the economics instruction offered to pre-high school students. Consider whether you must modify your instruction, either to: a) accommodate students' lack of economics in lower grades, or b) acknowledge that students coming into your course will soon have economics content knowledge you've not been able to count on them having in the past. Make note of your thoughts for future reference.
- Answer the following questions:
War has broken out in the Middle East, sharply reducing the supply of oil to the United States. The government has decided to order a 20% reduction in the production of gasoline for motor vehicle consumption in order to save petroleum. Average annual U.S. consumption of gasoline for motor vehicles before the outbreak of war was 120 billion gallons. It must now be reduced to 96 billion gallons. You are responsible for designing a system to allocate the reduced supply of gasoline. How will you do it?
What is the difference in the cost of buying a coke with no ice from the machine in the mall entryway and buying one with ice from the vendor at the other end of the mall (¼ mile away) if the price of the cokes is 75¢?
Suppose that a summer of flooding in the Midwest is followed by a summer of severe drought. Two successive failures of the wheat crop mean that bread production is severely reduced.
Predict what would happen if the government, with the well-being of the poor in mind, prevents the price of bread from rising.
Predict what would happen, in both the short-run and the long-run, if the government allows the price of bread to rise.
- Create 4 practice problems for your own students.
- Pose a problem in which students must identify and take into account the advantages and disadvantages of different types of rationing.
- Pose a problem requiring students to take time and transaction costs into account in purchasing decisions.
- Pose a problem that allows students to discover the ability of money and pricing signals to accommodate to particular situations of supply and demand caused by factors - social, political, physical, geographical, etc. - outside the market.
- Pose a problem in which students must predict the impact of government intervention in a market.
Try to solve and then comment upon two problems submitted by other class participants.
Respond to another participant's attempt to solve one of your problems or attempt a revision of your problem based on other participants' comments. - Reminder:
You must run 3 of the classroom activities with students and submit evaluations. Plan ahead!