UNIT – “Economic-Minded Citizenship: Why Incentives Matter”
Lesson 1 – Introduction to Incentives: Naked Economics, Ch.2 “Incentives Matter”
Description:
Guided reading and discussion with Think-Pair-Shares of text chapter.
Curriculum & Standards:
 NYS Core Curriculum
o Economics, the Enterprise System, and Finance
 2A – “Characteristics, pillars, and goals of the US economy…”
 3B – “Challenges for the US and other market based systems”
 NYS Learning Standards
o Standard 4: Economics, Key Idea 2
 Economics requires the development and application of the skills needed to make
informed and well-reasoned economic decisions in daily and national life.
 NCSS Standards
o 7. Production, Distribution, and Consumption
 “People have wants that often exceed the limited resources available to them.”
 National Voluntary Standards for Teaching Economics
o 4 – “People respond predictably to positive and negative incentives”
o 8 – Prices send signals and provide incentives to buyers and sellers…”
 Jump$tart Coalition Personal Financial Management Guidelines
o 4D – “Explain how taxes, government policy/regulation, and inflation impact saving and
investment decisions.”
Objectives – Students will be able to:
 List and describe the economic incentives involved in rhinoceros poaching in southern Africa
 Explain the impact of scarcity in rhinoceroses (near extinction) on the price of their goods
 Verbally synthesize their knowledge of the rhinoceros market to another more local consumer good
Necessary Equipment & Materials:
 Naked Economics Chapter 2 – a preview is available at the following link, but I highly recommend adding it
the your classroom library.
o http://books.google.com/books?id=lbOkUCVNSPoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=naked+economi
cs&hl=en#v=onepage&q=naked%20economics&f=false
Procedures:
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
Introduce book, provide brief biography of author and summary of the books main mission of
teaching economic concepts through fun examples and interesting stories
Begin reading chapter 2
Pause books to ask questions and checks for understanding
o *NOTE – Unfortunately, I am unable to export my notes from my Kindle version of
Naked Economics which mark points where I will stop for conversations. I am confident
you will find the book easy to talk about and an invaluable tool at teaching basic economic
Nicholas M. Lind
nicholaslind.wordpress.com
Time:
:00:05
:05-50
UNIT – “Economic-Minded Citizenship: Why Incentives Matter”
Lesson 1 – Introduction to Incentives: Naked Economics, Ch.2 “Incentives Matter”
concepts.
 Read book throughout class, assign remainder of chapter for homework and begin next class with
summary discussion using notes from homework reading
Assessments:
-responses to in-class checks for understanding
-participation during Think-Pair-Shares
-notes and responses during beginning of next class on remainder of book
Nicholas M. Lind
nicholaslind.wordpress.com