Economics Wisconsin

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Wisconsin Economic Standard
D.4.4

Investment and Growth

Give examples to explain how businesses and industry depend upon workers with specialized skills to make production more efficient

Economic Concepts
Business  ||  Production  ||  Division of labor  ||  Human capital
Increase in productivity  ||  Specialists

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Links to Content Information

blue check mark The impact of economic specialization - Describes the impact of economic specialization on the growth of communities.  Includes a student activity for grades K-3.
blue check mark Industry Productivity -  Information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The FAQ section is especially useful.

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Links to Lesson Plans and other Suggested Teaching Strategies

blue arrow Abuela's Weave - Grades 3-4. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical development and the current status of economic principles, institutions, and processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers in American society.
blue arrow Apple Picking Time - Grade 1.  Economic Concepts: Resources, Production, Specialization, Workers and Earnings 
blue arrow Assembly Lines - Grades K-2. Students form an assembly line to make a picture. This activity will help students understand the assembly line production process. Students will appreciate the role of special jobs in a community or group. 
blue arrow Division of Labor -  Grades 4-12. Help students understand the concept of division of labor.
blue arrow Econopolis - Teaches the following economics topics: History of Money and Trade, Free Enterprise, Goods and Services, Producer vs. Consumer, Opportunity Cost, Supply and Demand, and Problems in Econopolis.
blue arrow The Goat in the Rug - Grades 1-3.  Geraldine, a goat, tells the story of a Navajo weaver who produces a rug using the goat's mohair. Learn about producers, resources (natural, human, capital), intermediate goods. 
blue arrow Increasing Productivity - Grades K-2. This lesson stimulates students thinking with stories about rigorous athlete training illustrating the importance of training and practice. After students read the story, they will experiment to see how instruction and practice improves their ability to make an origami dog.
blue arrow The School Store - Grade 4. Students will categorize store items, use the computer, and determine which jobs are better handled by computers and humans.
blue arrow What is Work? - Grades 2-3. After completing 4 stations, students will be able to define work. They will also be able to give 2 examples of what work is and 2 examples of what work isn't.
blue arrow Other Web Sites - This page lists web sites offering a wealth of lesson plans for teaching economics, in addition to these lesson plans.

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List of Curricular Materials and Learning Activities

blue push pin Master Curriculum Guide in Economics: Teaching Strategies K-2, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin. Relevant lessons: 
  • Part 2, Lessons 6-10: Resources and Producers - Students  learn the difference between goods and services, producers and consumers, and types of resources (human, natural, and capital). 
  • Part 4, Lessons 17-20:  Specialization and Interdependence - Students learn that most people work in jobs where they specialize in a particular good or service, and that specialization creates interdependence. 
blue push pin Master Curriculum Guide in Economics: Teaching Strategies 3-4, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • Lesson 5: Getting More Out of Less - By participating in a production activity, students learn ways to increase productivity. 
  • Lesson 13: The Working World - By interviewing adult workers, students learn how education, training, and skills can increase the value of their human capital.
blue push pin The Community Publishing Company - Grades 3-5.  In this series of 33 lessons, students explore their communities, then write reports, form a publishing company, and manufacture and sell their book. Through this involving and motivating program, students learn economic concepts: scarcity, opportunity cost and trade-offs, productivity, economic institutions and incentives, exchange, money, and interdependence, markets and prices, supply and demand.  From Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.
blue push pin Econ and Me - Grades 3-6. An award-winning program of five 15-minute, sequentially arranged video lessons, each focusing on a specific economic concept: scarcity, opportunity cost, consumption, production, and interdependence.  Also included are two videotapes with background information for teachers.  From Economics America (search catalogue).
blue push pin Work, Human Resources, and Choices - Primary level students discover what being a worker means by interviewing workers from the community. They learn about goods and services and the skills, knowledge, and capital resources workers need to do their work. Students begin to understand how to set a goal, make a plan to reach it, and follow through on the plan. From Economics America (search catalogue).
blue push pin Virtual Economics: An Interactive Center for Economic Education, Version 2 - Each exhibit includes teaching tips, background information, a list of lessons, and video and audio clips that give additional information about the topic.  Available from Economics America (search catalogue). 
  • In section Fundamental Economics, see exhibit: Productivity

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National Content Standard 15 and its benchmarks

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Email an expert

    Professor Jim Grunloh, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh 

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Developed by 
Lynn Kirby, Ph.D., Education and Technology Consultant and
Larry Weiser, Ph.D., Program Director,  EconomicsWisconsin
University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point