Intro to Economics: What's all the Hype? Teacher's Handbook

This resource includes a digital download of the full 13 week course syllabus & teacher's handbook (PPTs and Flex Course can be purchased separately or in the Complete BUNDLE) aimed at enriching your learner’s understanding of Economics from the text: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy by Richard Maybury.

Designed for educators- private and public, I provide text specific discussion questions, appropriate cultural literacy terms, supplemental videos, discussion topics and recommended literature for your use. Each week students are given a weekly reading assignment, video with multi-media presentation, discussion/ essay questions, supplemental video/ article links for enrichment and in class or optional activities. I’ve included Coronavirus Special Edition Week to fit in at week 12. Week thirteen is reserved for final presentations with a Kahoot! review at Week eleven.

Topics of discussion include:

Week One- Worldviews; Author Viewpoints & Beliefs What is Economics? Why Study Economics? Juris Naturalism; Principles of Economics: Supply and Demand

Week Two- Money: Its Origin and History, Clad Tokens vs. Coins Welfare vs. Subsidy Clipping Coins and Reeding, Gresham’s Law

Week Three- Inflation Characteristics of good money, Federal Reserve Notes vs. Silver Certificates, Legal Tender, Law/ Fiat Money, TANSTAAFL

Week Four- Governments, Economic Systems & Controls; Monopolies: Price Gouging; Reasons for Inflation- Democracy vs. Dictatorship; Revolutions; Beware the LIE

Week Five- Business Cycle, Recessions, Depressions, Deflation, Velocity and Demand for Money; Stages of Inflation, Hyper-inflation; Monopolies & Competition

Week Six- Seen/ Unseen in Economic Practices Today: Bastiat article; Minimum Wage, Labor Unions

Week Seven- Producers vs. Consumers, Types of Economic Systems/ Production; Developed vs. Developing Countries; Specialization of Labor, Opportunity Cost

Week Eight- Boom/ Bust Cycle, Investments, Assets and Liabilities, Scarcity Compound Interest, Fractional Banking

Week Nine- You can’t consume more than you produce: personal and national debt; debt ceiling/ deficit; Bankruptcy Law; Public Debt: Citizen vs. Taxpayer, Infrastructure

Week Ten- Private and Public Sectors; National Macroeconomic Objectives & Microeconomics; NAFTA

Week Eleven- Natural Law VS Roman Civil Law, Socialism & Statism, Government’s Legal System= Economic Prosperity, Cycle of Body Politic; ‘Each according to his need’; Kahoot Quiz

Week Twelve- Coronavirus Special Edition: Local, National, Global Impacts: Costs of Pandemic, Seen & Unseen Consequences, Where Do We Go From Here?

Week Thirteen- Entrepreneurism/ innovation; Review Crossword; Student presentations of principles of economics/ concepts discussed- ie. create a visual presentation PPTX, perform a skit/ play and show it to us via video presentation, write an essay, create a mural or art project, etc.