We've collected a number of useful middle school-level economics lessons for you to use with your students.
Lesson: Give And Take
GRADES: 6-8
CONCEPTS: Opportunity Cost, Alternatives, Trade-offs, Problem Solving, Charts, Graphs, Calculators
SOURCE: Focus: Middle School Economics
Lesson: “The Giver”: Jonas Makes a Choice
GRADES: 4-7
CONCEPTS: Alternative, Benefit, Choice, Cost/Benefit Analysis, Costs, Decision Making, Incentive, Opportunity Cost, Scarcity
SOURCE: EconEdLink.org
Homer Price (Chapter: The Doughnuts)
GRADES: 4-7
CONCEPTS: Capital Resources, Productivity, Law of Demand, Quantity Demand
SOURCE: Economics and Children’s Literature
Lesson: Lawn Boy
GRADES: 6-8
CONCEPTS: Circular Flow, Supply, Demand, Opportunity Cost, Productivity, Markets, Taxes
SOURCE: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Lesson: My Side of the Mountain
GRADES: 4-8
CONCEPTS: Human Capital, Investment in Human Capital
SOURCE: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Lesson: Ten Mile Day: And the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
GRADES: 4-7
CONCEPTS: Capital Goods, Division of Labor, Human Capital, Incentives, Productivity
SOURCE: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Lesson: What Are the Economic Functions Of Government?
GRADES: 6-8
CONCEPTS: Economic Functions of Government
SOURCE: Focus on Economics: Civics and Government
Lesson: What Is a Stock? or Who Owns McDonalds?
GRADES: 6-12
CONCEPTS: Profit, Choice, Incentive, Risk
SOURCE: Learning for the Market: Integrating the Stock Market Game Across the Curriculum
Lesson: Worth
GRADES: 6-12
CONCEPTS: Banks, Collateral, Interest, Principal Profit, Reward, Risk
SOURCE: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
