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Through hands-on classroom activities,
JA Exploring Economics fosters lifelong skills and
knowledge about how an economy works, including micro-,
macro-, personal, and international economics.
The key learning objectives listed
beside each activity state the skills and knowledge students
will gain.
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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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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
- 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. |
Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
- 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. |
Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
- 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. |
Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
- 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. |
Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
- 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. |
Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
- 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. |
Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
- Describe the significance of international trade.
- Analyze the impact of trade on national and
international utility.
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JA Exploring Economics enhances students’
learning of the following concepts and skills:
Concepts–Banks
as borrower and lender, Command economy, Consumer Price
Index (CPI), Consumer purchasing power, Demand,
Distribution, Economics, Economic isolationism, Economic
systems, Federal Reserve System, Free-rider problem,
Inflation, Inflation rate, International trade, Investing
options, Market economy, Market-clearing price, Nonrivalry,
Percentage change, Private property, Production, Public vs.
private goods, Public vs. private sector, Regional trade,
Risk versus reward, Saving options, Simple interest, Supply,
Supply and demand, Tariff, Taxes, Trade restrictions,
Utility, United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),
World trade
Skills–Analyzing
information, Categorizing data, Charting, Decision-making,
Evaluating alternatives, Evaluating information, Graphing,
Listening for understanding, Oral and written communication,
Negotiating, Public speaking, Reading for understanding,
Solving algebraic equations, Working in pairs and groups
JA Exploring Economics is a
series of seven required sessions recommended for students
in grades 9 through 12. The average time it takes to present
each session is 45 minutes. Materials are packaged in a
self-contained kit that includes detailed session plans for
the volunteer and materials for 32 students.
All JA programs are designed to support
the skills and competencies identified by the Partnership
for 21st Century Skills. These programs also
augment school-based, work-based, and connecting activities
for communities with school-to-work initiatives.
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