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The Rising Cost of College: Tuition, Financial Aid, and Price Discrimination
Are average college tuition and fees really rising in the United States? Here is a fascinating take on the rising cost of college tuition and how price discrimination may explain what is often seen as an insurmountable cost for...
Curated OER
What is the Importance of Developing Job Skills?
Financial literacy is the way to teach! The class works in small groups to discover the relationship between education and income level. They use their math and problem-solving skills to complete two different activities. They work out a...
Curated OER
Extra Credit: It’s No Fairy Tale
Students discuss their knowledge of payday loans and credit cards. In this Economics lesson, students complete a read an article and Q&A activity in groups, and play a vocabulary bingo game and a quiz game on payday loans. Students...
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Invest in Yourself
What are the different ways that people can invest in their human capital for a better future? Pupils participate in an engaging hands-on activity and analyze data regarding unemployment, the ability to obtain an education, and median...
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Your Budget Plan
What do Whoosh and Jet Stream have in common? They are both characters in a fantastic game designed to help high schoolers identify various positive and negative spending behaviors. Through an engaging activity, worksheets, and...
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Credit Reports—and You Thought Your Report Card Was Important
Get the facts about credit and take a close look at what factors into a consumer credit report with this fantastic instructional activity. Your pupils will read informational texts, read sample financial documents, and...
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So How Much Are You Really Paying for that Loan?
Loans are rarely provided without a cost. Pupils evaluate the high cost of using a payday loan or payday advance through discussion and worksheets, and finally work in groups to develop short public service announcements...
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Turn Your Radio On
After listening to and analyzing a series of FDR's Fireside Chats, groups create their own recordings, and using New Deal programs, address a current economic condition.
Curated OER
Savers & Borrowers: Financial Markets in the United States
Investigate the current financial market and have your class explore savings, borrowing, financial markets, mutual funds, and the stock market. This four-part instructional activity is designed to help students become knowledgeable and...
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Deflation: Who Let the Air Out?
Why do decreasing prices (deflation) restrain economic growth, and why is this a real concern? Here you'll find reading materials and a related activity that gets right to the heart of this question, using recent events and...
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Beatrice’s Goat: A Lesson on Savings Goals
Youngsters learn the meaning of saving and how to reach savings goals by first reading a story of a young Ugandan girl who is gifted a goat, and then discovering the opportunity costs of savings decisions made by her and her family.
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Crowding Out
This is an incredible resource for teaching your young economists about the loanable funds market and the concept of crowding out. It includes a hands-on, physical activity that serves as a metaphor to help explain the economic...
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Sheep in a Shop
What do you think sheep might be able to barter when they don't have quite enough to buy a gift? Your pupils can find out this and much more during this lesson about Sheep in a Shop, spending, saving, and bartering.
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Natural Disasters: From Destruction to Recovery
What are the major economic implications, both good and bad, of natural disasters? Discover the effect that natural disasters can have on labor market conditions, capital, household incomes, and opportunities for reconstruction in local...
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What Do Financial Market Indicators Tell Us?
Explain the four categories of financial indicators (commodity prices, stock indexes, interest rates, and yield spreads), and help your class members understand how changes in this data can affect decisions regarding consumer spending,...
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Time Inconsistency: Today’s Actions = Tomorrow’s Regrets
Why do we choose instant gratification over maximizing lifetime satisfaction? How is this reflected in government and macroeconomics? Learn how one research analyst proposes individuals and governments can accomplish greater lifetime...
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Cotton in My Sack
As part of a study of saving choices and opportunity costs, class members listen to a reading of Lois Lenski's Cotton in My Sack, and then evaluate the spending choices made by the Hutley family.
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Glo Goes Shopping
Making decisions can be very difficult. Show your class one way to evaluate choices with this lesson, which is inspired by the book Glo Goes Shopping. Learners practicing using a decision-making grid with the content of the story and a...
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The Pickle Patch Bathtub
What do your pupils want to save up their money for? Based around the book The Pickle Patch Bathtub, this lesson plan covers opportunity cost, saving, and spending. Learners participate in a discussion and practice making their own...
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A Penny Saved
Budgeting, net vs. gross pay, savings, and fees are all key elements of personal financing and essential for your class members to learn about as young adults.
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U.S. Income Inequality: It's Not So Bad
What is the difference between a flat tax, progressive tax, tax deduction and transfer payments? Pupils examine the ability-to-pay principle of taxation through discussion, problem solving, and a variety of worksheets on topics from US...
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Credit Cards - A Package Deal
Arm your learners with the information they will need to make smart decisions regarding credit cards and personal savings.
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Ben Franklin: Highlighting the Printer
By studying Benjamin Franklin's work as a printer, your class will have a fantastic opportunity to learn about the economic concepts of entrepreneurship, human capital, and investment.
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Journey to Jo’burg: A South African Story
How did South African apartheid affect the ability of people of color to increase their human capital? Here is a rich lesson in which learners come to understand the relationship between investment in human capital and income, while also...