Wisconsin Economic Standard
D.8.11

Decision Making Incentives

 

Describe how personal decisions can have a global impact on issues such as trade agreements, recycling, and conserving the environment

Economic Concepts
Trade agreements  ||  Interdependence  ||  Decision making  ||  Consumer spending  ||  Choice

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Links to Content Information 
blue check mark Affluenza - Definition and other information, from PBS.  And map.
blue check mark Earth's 911 - Provides information on the environment including reducing, reusing, and recycling; your nearest recycling center location; how to buy recycled products; how to handle household hazardous waste; an interactive kid’s section; and more! Detailed sections on air and water quality, composting, and energy conservation will soon roll out nationwide.  This service is made possible through a partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency, all 50 states, and dozens of public and private organizations.
blue check mark Environmental Protection Agency - Information and activities for students and teachers
blue check mark Political Economy Research Center - PERC is a market-oriented think tank focusing on environmental and natural resource issues. Our research and policy analysis covers endangered species, forestry, fisheries, mines, parks, public lands, property rights, Superfund, water, wildlife, and environmental education.
blue check mark Sustainable Development Time Line - In 1962 Silent Spring was published, a book many consider a turning point in our understanding of the interconnections between the environment, economy and social well-being. In the decades that have followed, many milestones have marked the journey toward sustainable development.
blue check mark World Bank Organization
blue check mark World Trade Organization - The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international body dealing with the rules of trade between nations.

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Links to Lesson Plans and other Suggested Teaching Strategies
blue arrow Consumer Credit: Buy Now, Pay Later, and More - Through group activity, students analyze the costs and benefits of using credit cards to purchase goods and services.  To find this lesson, click on Lesson Plans, then Consumer Credit.
blue arrow Financial Planning: Budgeting Your Financial Resources - Students will learn the components of a budget and create their own.
blue arrow Investigating Investment Activity (4-12) - From the Bank Street College of Education. With or without money, students have a lot to invest. Invite your students to explore the value of what they have and to create individual plans to get the most from their investments.
blue arrow The Opportunity Cost of a Lifetime - All economic questions and problems arise from scarcity. Economics assumes people do not have the resources do satisfy all of their wants. Therefore, we must make choices about how to allocate those resources. We make decisions about how to spend our money and use our time. This lesson focuses on the idea that  every choice involves a cost.
blue arrow Spaceship Earth - Grades 5-7. This is a method of introducing the earth as a system, and the fragility of that system when various issues are considered as interactive parts of a spaceship earth
blue arrow Where in the World did this Come From? - Grades K-12. To develop a sense of interdependence with people who live in other countries and to appreciate that many people in far away places contribute greatly to our well being and lifestyle.
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 Economics for the Elementary Classroom by Elaine C. Coulson and Sarapage McCorkle, 1982. St. Louis, MO: SPEC Publishers.  The following lessons for grades 2-6: 
    * Student Council Decisions - pp. 36-40 
    * Choosing a House - pp. 41-51 
    * Dandy Dollar Takes a Trip - pp. 85-95
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 International Economics, see exhibit:  Foreign Exchange and Balance of  Payments

 
blue push pin Economics and the Environment, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • Unit 1, Lesson 2:  Students track the flow of natural resources from the environment, through the economy, and back to the environment; they consider alternatives that can reduce wastes and/or reduce their effect on environmental quality.  p.15
  • Unit 6, Lesson 15:  Students learn how people making decisions in the market for a nonrenewable resource decide when the resource will be used; they also learn how the price of the resource reflects its growing scarcity.  p.172
  • Unit 6, Lesson 16:  The Extinction of Chickens and Mosquitos--Not!:  Students consider the economic incentives associated with managing a renewable resource stock and the forces which can lead to the extinction of a species.  p.181
  • Unit 7, Lesson 19:  How Many Children Can Mother Earth Stand? - The effect of economic development on population growth is illustrated, pp.213-224.
  • Unit 7, Lesson 20:  Toward a Sustainable Future?  Students explore the linkages between environmental protection and economic development, and the concept of sustainability. p.225

 
blue push pin Focus: International Economics, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin. Lesson 1:  Why Do People Trade? - After participating in a trading activity, students compare their behavior with trading behavior that occurs in the economy.  p.1

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National Content Standards 2 and 4.
 (Scroll down the linked page to locate the grade 8 benchmarks)

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Email an expert

Professor Larry Weiser, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 

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