Modern Economic Problems Heimlich

Why is this class called “Modern Economic Problems”? It’s a view of current events (accessed mostly through reading the newspaper) with an economic twist. Many of the articles we will read and discuss will have an economic undertone to them.

What is Economics? Economics studies the allocation of scarce resources among people – examining what goods and services wind up in the hands of which people

What do economists study? Markets Goods and Services Opportunity Cost Supply and Demand Consumer Price Index Gross Domestic Product Inflation Recession, Depression Trade Taxation We will come back to this later…

How does this class work? We will spend time each day reading the paper and doing 3 summaries, 2 of which must have an economic angle to them. While reading your articles, you will pull out at least 3 vocabulary words that are unfamiliar to you. We will discuss both the articles and the vocabulary words. You will be doing short summaries of each article in your notebook, which will be graded

Summaries I will assign two articles, then you can choose the third Each day’s date will be at the top of the page You will put the title of the article in quotation marks, then the author’s name Summarize the article in 3-5 sentences, addressing the 5 W’s Then, give your personal reflection on the article/topic in 3-5 sentences

How do you earn a grade? Each week I will collect your notebooks to check your summaries—if you are absent, you can access these on Moodle, access the newspaper online, and hand it in within two days. These summaries are worth 5 points per day. You will be quizzed on vocabulary. We will do some activities, as well as having quizzes on basic newspaper terms and economic terms.

How do you earn a good grade? Show up on time each day Don’t have your phone out Read the paper and do your summaries Participate in discussion Do a good job studying for your vocabulary quizzes Do well on your other two quizzes