Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Ohio Standards
Connection:
Economics
Benchmark A
Compare how different
economic systems answer
the fundamental economic
questions of what goods
and services to produce,
how to produce them, and
who will consume them.
Indicator 2
Explain how changing
methods of production and
a country’s productive
resources affect how it
answers the fundamental
questions of what to
produce, how to produce,
and for whom to produce.
Lesson Summary:
In this lesson, students assume the role of an entrepreneur
during the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s in Great
Britain. They will investigate how changing methods of
production affected the way that the fundamental economic
questions were being answered at that time.
Estimated Duration: Two hours and 30 minutes
Commentary:
Field test reviewers indicated that they and their students
liked the research aspects of this lesson.
Pre-Assessment:
Using Attachment A, provide students with approximately 12
minutes to answer the following questions:
1. What are the fundamental economic questions that all
economies must answer?
2. How are the fundamental economic questions
answered by a market economy?
3. What is the role of an entrepreneur in answering the
fundamental economic questions in a market
economy?
4. How would the decisions of an entrepreneur be
impacted by available means of production and natural
resources?
5. What was the Industrial Revolution?
Scoring Guidelines:
Use the Pre-Assessment Answer Key, Attachment B.
• Check work as students are completing the preassessment. Identify vocabulary and concepts that need
further instruction.
• Note which students already have a clear understanding of
the questions to guide decisions regarding designing more
in-depth work.
Post-Assessment:
Administer the post-assessment using Attachment C.
Attachment D provides sample answers.
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Scoring Guidelines:
Use the rubric provided in Attachment C to check student achievement.
Instructional Procedures:
Day One
1. Administer the pre-assessment using Attachment A.
2. Clarify and review answers to the pre-assessment questions using Attachment B, PreAssessment Answer Key.
3. Preview the benchmark and indicator with students.
4. Clarify with students the three fundamental economic questions addressed by economies.
Provide examples of how each is addressed in a market economy where individuals engaged
in exchange or trade make choices to determine how scarce resources are allocated.
Examples:
a. “What goods and services should be produced?” Buyers communicate what they want
when they make purchases. Sellers provide goods and services based on demand and
price.
b. “How should these goods and services be produced?” Buyers increase purchases with
lower prices. Sellers seek to provide goods and services efficiently and at the same time
avoid surpluses.
c. “Who consumes the goods and services produced?” Prices help determine shortages and
surpluses. Prices above the market clearing price will fall causing sellers to produce less
and buyers to purchase more; prices below the market clearing price will rise causing
sellers to produce more and buyers to purchase less.
5. Assign students to groups of four.
6. Distribute Attachment E, Group Worksheet. Review the directions and the chart. Explain that
students will have time during the next class to research their roles (in the library, media
center, computer lab or classroom as directed). Answer questions to clarify the assignment.
7. Have students divide, within their group, the research for the four roles.
8. Have students use their textbooks to gather background information about changes during the
Industrial Revolution.
Day Two
9. Have students continue working in groups as previously directed to complete Attachment E,
Group Worksheet.
10. Monitor the students using Attachment F, Group Worksheet Sample Answers, to help guide
student learning.
Day Three
11. Have students assemble in their original groups of four. Using their own paper, have each
student label a sheet for each of the three roles on Attachment E that the student did not
research. Have students share answers about each role with the other students so that each
student has information on all four roles.
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
12. Review answers with students and check for understanding. Make sure that students are ready
for the post-assessment. Review how the fundamental economic questions are answered in a
market economy.
13. Collect worksheets and student papers. Assign the post-assessment.
Differentiated Instructional Support:
Instruction is differentiated according to learner needs to help all learners either meet the intent of
the specified indicator(s) or, if the indicator is already met, to advance beyond the specified
indicator(s).
• Provide more time if students need help with vocabulary, examples or research.
• Help students define vocabulary words found in the benchmarks and indicators.
• Have students work in pairs or heterogeneous groups to define and review vocabulary.
• Have students create graphic organizers to categorize information in the lesson.
• Have students choose alternative presentation methods for the post-assessment, such as an
oral report, visual presentation, etc.
• Direct students working beyond the indicator to diagram and label parts of a new method of
production, such as the rotary-motion steam engine or the crop rotation system. Have them
present and explain the diagram. Have them indicate how the diagram relates to one or more
of the three economic questions.
Extensions:
Have students research and explain a change in a modern method of production. Have students
address how the change impacts the answers to the three fundamental economic questions in a
market economy. Allow students to report their findings to the class and perhaps compare these
changing methods with the changing production methods of the Industrial Revolution of the
1700s.
Homework Options and Home Connections:
Assign students to interview people about their jobs. They can ask the following questions:
1. Are there any changing methods of production/service at work?
2. If so, have they made people more productive?
3. Have they made the job more difficult or easier?
4. What was the purpose of the changing method of production/service?
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Science
• Science and Technology
Benchmark A: Explain the ways in which the processes of technological design respond to
the needs of society.
Indicator 1: Describe means of comparing the benefits with the risks of technology and how
science can inform public policy.
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Materials and Resources:
The inclusion of a specific resource in any lesson formulated by the Ohio Department of
Education should not be interpreted as an endorsement of that particular resource, or any of its
contents, by the Ohio Department of Education. The Ohio Department of Education does not
endorse any particular resource. The Web addresses listed are for a given site’s main page,
therefore, it may be necessary to search within that site to find the specific information required
for a given lesson. Please note that information published on the Internet changes over time,
therefore the links provided may no longer contain the specific information related to a given
lesson. Teachers are advised to preview all sites before using them with students.
For the teacher: Writing materials.
For the students: Writing materials, textbook and other research materials.
Vocabulary:
• economic system
• productive resources
• methods of production
• enclosure movement
• crop rotation
• spinning jenny
• spinning frame (water frame)
• smelter
• coke (fuel)
• puddling
• power loom
Technology Connections:
Instead of an essay for the post assessment, have students use computer software to create a
presentation. The essay rubric would still apply.
Research Connections:
Marzano, R. et al. Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing
Student Achievement, Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development, 2001.
Cooperative learning has a powerful effect on student achievement. This type of grouping
includes the following elements:
• Positive interdependence;
• Individual and group accountability;
• Group processing.
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
General Tips:
This economics grade-level indicator can be taught in conjunction with a history unit on the
Industrial Revolution.
Attachments:
Attachment A, Pre-Assessment Questions
Attachment B, Pre-Assessment Answer Key
Attachment C, Post-Assessment
Attachment D, Post-Assessment Sample Answer
Attachment E, Group Worksheet
Attachment F, Group Worksheet Sample Answers
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Attachment A
Pre-Assessment Questions
Directions: Answer the following questions.
1. What are the fundamental economic questions that all economies must answer?
2. How are the fundamental economic questions answered by a market economy?
3. What is the role of an entrepreneur in answering the fundamental economic questions in a
market economy?
4. How would the decisions of an entrepreneur be impacted by available means of
production and natural resources?
5. What was the Industrial Revolution?
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Attachment B
Pre-Assessment Answer Key
1. What are the fundamental economic questions that all economies must answer?
What goods and services should be produced? How should these goods and
services be produced? Who consumes the goods and services produced?
2. How are the fundamental economic questions answered by a market economy?
Answers to the fundamental economic questions in a market economy are
determined by individuals engaged in exchange or trade. Choices made by buyers
and sellers determine how scarce resources are allocated (i.e., what is produced,
how it is produced and who consumes this product).
3. What is the role of an entrepreneur in answering the fundamental economic questions in a
market economy?
Entrepreneurs assemble the necessary productive resources (natural resources,
human resources and capital goods) to create goods and services.
4. How would the decisions of an entrepreneur be impacted by available means of
production and natural resources?
The means of production (capital goods) and natural resources available to an
entrepreneur would inform the decision as to what can be produced.
5. What was the Industrial Revolution?
The Industrial Revolution was a process beginning in the mid-1700s that shifted
the means of production from primarily hand tools to increasingly mechanized
production methods. This was facilitated by replacing human and animal power
with new sources of power (new uses for natural resources).
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Attachment C
Post-Assessment
Directions: Select one of the four areas of production in Great Britain that was studied in this
lesson (i.e., crop, thread, iron, textile production). Base the answers to the questions listed below
on developments during the 1700s for the selected area of production. The answers will help
explain how responses to a fundamental economic question in the market economy of Great
Britain changed during the Industrial Revolution. Support all of your answers with specific details
and examples.
1. Explain the manner in which the use of natural resources changed during the Industrial
Revolution and helped answer “how to produce goods and services” in the selected area of
production.
2. Explain how methods of production changed during the Industrial Revolution and helped
answer “how to produce goods and services” in the selected area of production.
Scoring Rubric
3 points
2 points
1 point
Use of Natural
Resources
A thorough explanation is
supported with detailed
information.
A partial explanation is
supported with detailed
information.
A partial explanation
is supported with few
details.
Methods of
Production
A thorough explanation is
supported with detailed
information.
A partial explanation is
supported with detailed
information.
A partial explanation
is supported with few
details.
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Attachment D
Post-Assessment Sample Answer
1. Explain the manner in which the use of natural resources changed during the Industrial
Revolution and helped answer “how to produce goods and services” in the selected area of
production.
Iron smelters began to use coal rather than wood as a source of heat in the production of
iron. It was less expensive to use coal to produce coke for iron smelting and this allowed
for larger smelting operations. The smelting operations moved closer to the coal fields in
Great Britain.
2. Explain how methods of production changed during the Industrial Revolution and helped
answer “how to produce goods and services” in the selected area of production.
In addition to switching to coke as a heat source, iron producers began using rolling mills
on an increasing basis to produce wrought iron. A new process called “puddling” was
also begun during this period. Iron was now produced much more efficiently.
NOTE: Students may provide other answers to the post-assessment questions based on the other
roles discussed during the lesson.
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Attachment E
Group Worksheet
Directions: Listed below are four roles for you to select from. Research your role to answer the
four questions. Use the key words under your role to help in your research.
British Crop Farmers,
1750s
•
•
•
•
•
Agricultural
revolution
Enclosure
movement
Crop rotation
Jethro Tull
Charles
Townshend, 2nd
Viscount
British Thread
Producers, 1770s
•
•
•
River system
James
Hargreaves
Richard
Arkwright
British Iron
Smelters, 1780s
•
•
•
•
Timber, coal
and iron ore
resources
Abraham
Darby
Matthew
Boulton
Henry Cort
British Textile Mill
Owners, 1790s
•
•
•
•
Power loom
Rotary-motion
steam engine
Edmund
Cartwright
James Watt
1. What is produced and how are the products used?
2. How did the products or methods of production change at this time?
3. How did the natural resources of Great Britain affect production during this time?
4. Which of the three fundamental economic questions did these changes address or help to
answer? How did the answer(s) change?
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Attachment F
Group Worksheet Sample Answers
British Crop Farmers, 1750s
1. What is produced and how are the products used?
Crops, such as barley, wheat, peas, oats and clover were used as food for people and
animals.
2. How did the products or methods of production change at this time?
Farmers increasingly worked small parcels of land rather than open fields as landowners
continued the enclosure movement. The use of the seed drill, rather than hand seeding,
increased crop yields on the smaller fields. New methods of crop rotation, including planting
turnips in fields for animal feed rather than letting fields lay fallow, increased agricultural
production.
3. How did the natural resources of Great Britain affect production during this time?
Farmers made better use of the soil.
4. Which of the three fundamental economic questions did these changes address or help to
answer? How did the answer(s) change?
What goods and services should be produced? Turnips began to be raised as animal feed.
How should goods and services be produced? Greater crop yields meant more food for
people, but also meant not as many people needed to be farmers. These people were available
to work in other jobs producing other goods and services.
British Thread Producers, 1770s
1. What is produced and how are the products used?
Thread was produced that was used in making cloth and fabric.
2. How did the products or methods of production change at this time?
Larger, water-powered machines produced stronger thread. Mills (factories) were built close
to rivers so running water could turn water wheels. Workers came to work in the mills rather
than producing thread at home (cottage industry). The hand-powered spinning jenny was
replaced by the spinning frame and later the water frame.
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Attachment F
Group Worksheet Sample Answers (Continued)
3. How did the natural resources of Great Britain affect production during this time?
Mills took advantage of the rivers to turn water wheels which provided the power needed to
run the large machines.
4. Which of the three fundamental economic questions did these changes address or help to
answer? How did the answer(s) change?
How should goods and services be produced? Higher-quality thread was produced more
efficiently by the new machinery.
British Iron Smelters, 1780s
1. What is produced and how are the products used?
The iron that was produced was used to make bolts, buckles, rails and pipes.
2. How did the products or methods of production change at this time?
Instead of charcoal made from wood, coke, made from coal, was increasingly used to smelt
iron. This process was less expensive and allowed for larger production facilities. Rolling
mills were increasingly used to make wrought iron which is more durable than cast iron. The
puddling process also made the production of wrought iron easier.
3. How did the natural resources of Great Britain affect production during this time?
Despite an abundance of iron ore, iron smelting was previously conducted on a small scale.
The smelting process required a substantial heat source. Smelters needed to be close to
forests so wood could be turned into charcoal for this purpose. This was a difficult process
and many forests had been cleared. Now iron smelters could use Britain’s abundant supplies
of coal, smelting operations were enlarged and they moved to areas closer to the coal fields.
4. Which of the three fundamental economic questions did these changes address or help to
answer? How did the answer(s) change?
What goods and services should be produced? Smelters began producing coke as a new heat
source for the production of iron.
How should goods and services be produced? Iron was made more efficiently with the new
methods of production; this made it less costly to produce and facilitated its use.
Who consumes the goods and services produced? Coal, previously used for fuel, was now in
demand by iron smelters to be processed into coke.
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Fundamental Economic Questions and the Industrial Revolution –
Grade Nine
Attachment F
Group Worksheet Sample Answers (Continued)
British Textiles Entrepreneur, 1770s
1. What is produced and how are the products used?
Cloth was produced and used in making clothing, bedding and curtains.
2. How did the products or methods of production change at this time?
Weaving by hand was being replaced by mechanical weaving. Power looms utilized rotarymotion steam engines to operate.
3. How did the natural resources of Great Britain affect production during this time?
The availability of coal and water resources made steam engines practical for textile mills to
use.
4. Which of the three fundamental economic questions did these changes address or help to
answer? How did the answer(s) change?
How should goods and services be produced? The production of cloth was made more
efficient and it could be sold at a lower cost
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