Capstone: Exemplary Lessons for
High School Economics
Overview
• Economic Way of thinking
• Overview of Capstone
including “mysteries”
• Lesson 40 Why Do People
Trade
Economic Way of Thinking and
Capstone Mysteries
The Economics Myth
• Myth
– Economics is all
about the money.
• Reality
– Economics is all
about how people
make choices.
– Economics is a way
of thinking and
understanding.
The Florida Teacher Mystery
• Teachers have things to do.
They:
– Prepare lessons
– Attend staff meetings
– Attend parent
conferences
– Teach classes
– Run clubs and coach
sports
– Grade papers
– Prepare for tests
– Complete forms and
reports
– Enter grades
– Attend more meetings…
• Why would teachers with so
many things to do want to
attend a seminar on
economics -- a subject most
teachers love to hate?
The Guide To Economic Reasoning
1. People choose.
2. People’s choices involve
costs.
3. People respond to
incentives in predictable
ways.
4. People create economic
systems that influence
individual choices and
incentives.
5. People gain when they
trade voluntarily.
6. People's decisions have
consequences that lie in
the future.
The Oil Reserves Mystery
• Proven oil reserves stand at 531
billion barrels and we are
consuming 16.5 billion barrels
annually.
• Quick! How many years will it
take us to run out of oil?
• This was the situation in 1970.
• By 2010, proven oil reserves
had increased to over 1.30
trillion barrels even though the
world is consuming about 35
billion barrels annually.
• How can this be?
The Battle for the Overhead Bins
• Air travelers kiss their loved
ones goodbye…
• And then transform into
baggage warriors stuffing all
sorts to oversized bags
rudely into overhead bins.
• Why do they do that?
• Bonus Question: How could
a change in the rule of the
game influence their
behavior?
Why Can’t You Buy A Car on Sunday
• In Detroit, Michigan,
– You can buy a lottery
ticket on Sunday.
– You can buy a cigar on
Sunday.
– You can buy a bottle of
gin on Sunday.
• But in Michigan (and
Colorado, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland,
Maine, Minnesota,
Missouri, Texas, Wisconsin,
nad Utah) you can’t buy a
new car on Sunday.
• Why?
Why Grow Cotton in the Desert?
• Water is a scarce resource,
especially in Arizona.
• Yet, growing cotton and citrus
crops are an important part of
the Arizona’s economy.
• Why would farmers grow
monsoon crops in the desert?
The Mystery of the Alien Bananas
• Bananas are a tropical fruit.
• No one in Florida grows
them commercially.
• Florida statutes provide no
plan for getting bananas to
grocery stores.
• Yet, there they are there –
everyday, even the most
rural grocery stores.
• How can that be?
John Stossel Gets a Steak
Capstone Features
Capstone Features
• Complete lesson plans
• Linked the CEE National
Standards
• Field tested and reviewed
• Mysteries and Guide to
Economic Thinking
• 45 lessons
• Assessments for each lesson
• Glossary
Authors
•
•
•
•
•
Jane Lopus
John Morton
Robert Reinke
Mark Schug
Donald Wentworth
Capstone Mysteries
Unit 1
• Why do an increasing
number of Americans, the
same people who admire
the slim and slender so
often featured in the media,
exercise too little and eat
too much?
The Guide To Economic Reasoning
1. People choose.
2. People’s choices involve
costs.
3. People respond to
incentives in predictable
ways.
4. People create economic
systems that influence
individual choices and
incentives.
5. People gain when they
trade voluntarily.
6. People's decisions have
consequences that lie in
the future.
True or False Clues
• Few Americans know that
exercising more and eating
less can help many people
become healthier? T or F?
• Exercise and a healthy diet
are free. T or F ?
• In jobs that involve
physical work, exercise is
like a fringe benefit.T or F ?
• The price of food has been
increasing. T or F?
• Passive modes of
entertainment -- like
television and video games
-- are popular with many
Americans. T or F ?
• Common jobs in the past -in mining, farming, and
manufacturing -- were
much safer than today’s
jobs in technology, law,
and finance? T or F ?
Solving the Mystery
• Americans are gaining extra weight not because they are lazy
or because of a sudden increase in the desire to eat fatty
foods.
• Today many Americans have accepted the new jobs created in
a market system that involve less exercise.
• Americans have traded thinness and some of the health
benefits that came with strenuous, dangerous work to live
longer and healthier lives.
• The cost of physical activity has gone up, prompting people to
make new choices regarding exercise.
Capstone Mysteries
Unit 2
• Why did the Soviet Union collapse?
Unit 3
• Why is it that people in diverse occupations, occupations that
contribute in very different ways to the social good, earn such
different incomes?
Unit 4
• How can people acting in their own self-interest contribute to
the social good?
Capstone Mysteries
Unit 5
•
Why hasn’t the Endangered Species Act protected more
critters?
Unit 6
•
How can the unemployment rate increase at the same time
that more people are getting jobs?
Unit 7
•
Since international trade is a relatively small part of the
American economy, why is there all the fuss over going
global?