Engaging Students in Learning Economics

What is Economics? 

Economics is a discipline of social studies how individuals make decisions that effect the distribution of scarce resources to meet their needs and wants. Economics deals with the management of goods and services and how they are produced. 

Economics Project

This week in class, we were each given a topic to research and had to create two slides on a class slideshow on what economics is and how we can effectively teach it to students. It was interesting to see what everyone came up with and everyone's information is very useful and applicable in the classroom. 

I presented my research on my topic which was using the five social studies principles when teaching economics. I was also asked to give resources for teaching economics and how to teach economics while teaching my unit plan. The five principles of teaching social studies are meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. To make social studies meaningful, teachers should use real life problems to understand that there are real life issues in the world dealing with economics. When learning about wants and needs, teachers can have students bring in everyday items and classify them as a want or a need to learn how to make connections. To make social studies integrative, teachers should try to draw on more than one discipline. When talking about the production of goods, teachers can choose items to see where they are produced and they can be instructed to research that place. To make economics value-based for students, teachers can teach students the benefits of a good economy. To make economics challenging, teachers can have students role play. Role playing is challenging for students because they are forced to think as someone else but it also increases their understanding. Students can role play as producers, sellers, and consumer by making the classroom a mall and having students make, sell, and buy items. To make economics active for students, they should be involved and participate. Students learn the importance of money by doing an activity where students "pay" for different items with change. 

I provided two resources for teaching economics. One website had games and blogs. Another website had useful games and lesson plans. When teaching the American Revolution, I provided two activities to incorporate economics. The first activity was to write a letter to students explaining that they have to pay taxes throughout the day to understand what it was like for the colonists. Another activity was to role play as tax collectors, the king, and colonists. Students will get a better understanding of what taxes are and get to experience what the colonist felt. 

Nicole S presented her research next. Her topic was microeconomics and macroeconomics. She presented her information into columns and also provided an image of the differences of them and an example of each. I liked that she provided this to get a better understanding of what both terms mean. 

Christine presented her topic, which were the concepts of economics and economic decision making. I like how she provided many pictures of different graphs and tables. She also provided two lesson plans that go along with the concepts of economics which I would definitely use when I teach economics. 

Kelli's topic was to explain why scarcity and decision making are considered the key to economic understanding. Kelli provided a good explanation of scarcity and also a picture book about economics. I liked how she provided that to teach economics through literature  for a different type of learning. 

Lindsay talked about how to teach and use the economic decision-making model with students. She provided the steps for the decision making process and a worksheet for the students. I liked how she provided examples for which students can use the decision-making model. 

Nicole B explained how economics influences the lives of all people, communities, and nations by providing multiple graphs. She also provided a video of a teacher teaching the importance of economics. 

Ainsley identified ways in which economic education into the social studies curriculum through such topics as career education, geography, history, community studies, and consumer education. I like how she provided examples of each topic and she showed us the Skype in the classroom to learn about different cultures' ideas and issues on certain topics. 

Everyone's information and research is very useful when teaching students economics. Economics is a very important topic to learn about and I will use the resources presented in this slideshow.