JA Exploring Economics tackles a complex subject and makes it accessible and fun for high school students through hands-on activities. JA Exploring Economics teaches concepts such as supply and demand and inflation, and teaches students about the effect which governments and the individual have on the global economy and on the price of a loaf of bread.
By making economics engaging and relatable, JA Exploring Economics helps students better understand the impact they have on the economy as consumers and taxpayers, and teaches important personal financial lessons around spending, saving, and investing.
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KEY LEARNING OBJECTIVES |
| Session One—Economic Systems: Who Makes the Big Decisions?
Students examine how the economic system that a society uses for production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services significantly affects the individuals in that society.
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- Analyze the impact of a society’s economic system on the decisions it makes about the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
- Evaluate how the following characteristics affect the efficiency of a market: money, private property, limited government, exchange of resources in available markets, and entrepreneurship.
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| Session Two—Supply and Demand: What’s It Worth to You?
Students illustrate the impact of supply and demand on the economy by participating in an economic situation using real-life examples.
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- Review the concepts of supply and demand.
- Define market-clearing price.
- Demonstrate the interaction between supply and demand in a free-market economy.
- Respond to real-life examples of price and other market forces that influence supply and demand and the market-clearing price.
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| Session Three—Supply and Demand: The JA Market Game
Using an experiential game format, students demonstrate the interaction of supply and demand and how market forces affect the price of products.
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- Explain the interaction between supply and demand in a free-market economy, and the market’s drive toward establishing a market-clearing price.
- Apply real-life examples of market forces that influence supply and demand.
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| Session Four—Saving and Investing: Risks and Rewards
Students explore concepts related to consumers, savers, and investors, including how wealth increases in different saving and investing options. They compare the characteristics, risks, and rewards of several options.
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- Recognize ways to earn and increase wealth through saving and investing.
- Analyze examples of wealth acquired through saving and investing.
- Evaluate different methods of saving and investing, including varied risks and rewards.
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| Session Five—Government’s Role in the Market
Students analyze the effect of government on the economy, including intervention through the production of public goods and services, taxes, and its role in protecting private property.
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- Categorize public versus private goods, and explain why governments intervene in the economy by providing public goods.
- Express why individuals and businesses pay taxes.
- Analyze the impact of the government’s role in protecting private property.
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| Session Six—Money, Inflation, and the CPI
Students learn about inflation and its effect on prices, consumer purchasing power, the willingness of financial institutions to loan money, and how the Consumer Price Index (CPI) monitors inflation.
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- Define inflation and demonstrate its connection to the availability and value of money in a market, as well as its effect on prices and consumer purchasing power.
- Explain and calculate how the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures consumer prices.
- Recognize that inflation can impair a market economy by affecting consumer confidence and funds available for investment.
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| Session Seven—International Trade
Students compare trade policies and the global economy through a simulation based on the increased utility (satisfaction) of international trade.
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- Describe the significance of international trade.
- Analyze the impact of trade on national and international utility.
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