The Virginia Council on Economic Education 2015-2016 Featured Books: Tia Isa Wants a Car by Meg Medina, Helen’s Big World: Life of Helen Keller by Doreen Rappaport, and Uncle Jed’s Barbershop by Margaree King Mitchell with discussion questions and lesson plans. These books are used to teach about savings,savings goals, opportunity cost, productive resources, and human capital.

In the story, Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, Alexander receives a dollar from his grandparents that he plans to save, but he spends it all, a little at a time. In this lesson, students count by 2s to fill a container with 100 pennies. They are asked whether 100 pennies is the same amount of money as one dollar. They listen to the story, and as Alexander spends his money, students come up and remove the correct number of pennies from a container. At the end of the story, students are again asked if 100 pennies is the same amount of money as one dollar. Students discuss the choices that Alexander made and give advice on how he could save his money to reach his goal of buying a walkie-talkie.

Cards, Cars and Currency is a curriculum unit that challenges students to become involved in three specific areas of personal finance: credit cards, debit cards and purchasing a car.

The unit is divided into five lesson plans. The activities in each lesson plan are designed to address problem-solving, critical-thinking and higher levels of learning, using real-world scenarios. With a focus on responsibility for personal financial decisions, students will be able to identify the bottom line of financial decision making: income kept or lost.

All of the lessons are correlated with the national Personal Finance Standards and the National Standards in Economics. (See the Lesson Correlation section for more information.) This content from Econ Lowdown also features alignment to national Financial Literacy and/or Economics standards.

Learn more about the economy through this informative lesson. "In this lesson, you will learn how the incentive program affects the personal choices you make in class. You will also analyze how economic incentives can affect behavior."

Find out what the definition of a cost and a benefit is in terms of the economy when using this site. "When making a decision, students should consider the costs and the benefits of that decision."

This resource provides a good example of the differences between explicit costs and implicit costs using the ownership of a pizza restaurant as an example.

Website with short video [0:20] and quiz teaches the concept of opportunity cost. Links to related material and lessons.

This lesson encourages students to define opportunity cost, determine the the opportunity cost and trade-offs for certain decisions, and select criteria important for decision making.

A simple lesson plan on the concept of opportunity costs or sacrifices. A short quiz on this concept is also provided.

This energy classroom game focuses on energy sources. Students learn that energy, the environment, and economics are closely tied. During the course of the game students discover the concepts of scarcity, opportunity cost, net energy profit, law of diminishing returns, and that availability does not mean usefulness.

As part of ongoing efforts to promote financial literacy education across the state, the Ohio Treasurer’s office has released a free winter-themed financial literacy activity toolkit.

The Fun with Finance Teacher Toolkit is designed for students in grades 1-5 and focuses on the foundations of budgeting. The “Can You Build a Snowman on a Budget?” classroom activity asks students to use a worksheet to gather items for their snowman while remaining within a set budget of $15.

Each snowman accessory, such as a hat or buttons, costs $1-$3 and students must choose an item from each category to complete their snowman. Through this activity, young Ohioans will receive an introduction to making smart financial choices within a budget - all while enjoying a fun, seasonal craft.

Lesson that helps student understand the decision-making process and introduces the concept of cost. Students listen to a story and take a short quiz. Includes links to the story and the quiz.

This article provides a thorough examination of comparative advantage, absolute advantage, and opportunity cost, and how these three terms are related.

This is a lesson from EconEdLink where students learn about saving money. Includes activities and materials.

Principles of Macroeconomics 2e covers the scope and sequence of most introductory economics courses. The text includes many current examples, which are handled in a politically equitable way. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of economics concepts. The second edition has been thoroughly revised to increase clarity, update data and current event impacts, and incorporate the feedback from many reviewers and adopters. Changes made in Principles of Macroeconomics 2e are described in the preface and the transition guide to help instructors transition to the second edition. The first edition of Principles of Macroeconomics by OpenStax is available in web view here.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Calculate and graph budget constraints
Explain opportunity sets and opportunity costs
Evaluate the law of diminishing marginal utility
Explain how marginal analysis and utility influence choices