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Overview

In this experience, students are introduced to the basics of economic sectors, economic development indicators, and types of economic systems. They compare and contrast three countries with different types of economies, noting various economic indicators. Finally, they analyze the results of their findings.

Estimated duration: 45-60 minutes

Vocabulary Words:

economics: the study of how people, businesses, and countries make choices about resources, goods, and services.
economic sector: a part of an economy grouped by the kind of work people do or products they make.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the total value of goods and services produced in a country during a certain time, usually one year.
GDP per capita: a country's GDP divided by its population; it shows the average economic output per person.
economic indicator: a piece of information, such as GDP or life expectancy, that helps show how an economy is doing.
market economy: an economy in which individuals and private businesses make many economic decisions, and prices are influenced by supply and demand.
command economy: an economy in which the government controls many resources and makes many decisions about production and prices.
mixed economy: an economy that combines market choices with some government involvement.
developing economy: an economy that is still experiencing major changes in income, industry, infrastructure, education, and access to services.

Objectives:

Define basic economic terminology and identify examples
Evaluate and describe economic development using economic indicators

You may have a pet, such as a cat, dog, gerbil, or goldfish. Even if you do not, you can imagine one. How do you know whether a pet is healthy and doing well? You might look at several things. Is it eating and drinking? Is it active? Does it seem comfortable? Looking at more than one sign can help you understand how the pet is doing.

Countries also have many things happening at once. People work, businesses produce goods and services, and people buy and sell things. Together, these activities are part of a country’s economy. In this experience, you will learn about some of the parts of an economy and ways to understand how well it is doing.

Objectives:

Define basic economic terminology and identify examples
Evaluate and describe economic development using economic indicators

several people, seated, watching large screens

Stock Market in Brazil

What comes to mind when you think about the word economics? In a word or short phrase, share an idea with your classmates. To list more than one, separate your words with a comma, like this: car, truck.

Post your answer

Discuss student responses. Students may use words or phrases such as money, stock market, income, poverty, industry, etc.

You may have listed many different words because economics connects to many parts of everyday life. In this experience, you’ll learn what economics means and explore some of its basic ideas.

Post a question you have about economics.

As you move through the experience, be sure to note when one of the students’ questions is being answered. You may want to return to the questions at the end of the experience to see how many were answered. For those questions that were not answered, encourage students to do their own research to find definitions for terms.

When everyone is ready to continue, unlock the next scene.

Basics of Economics