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High School Resources
Lesson plans and classroom activities in the high school section are appropriate for students in grades nine through twelve.
|Resource||Description||Grade Level||Key Concepts|
|It's not Your Father's Farm Bill||This lesson introduces the Agricultural Act of 2014, better known as the Farm Bill. After an overview of the bill highlights, students participate in a role play to better understand the bill's effects on different groups of citizens within a community.
||7-12||Production, entrepreneurship, revenue, profit, insurance subsidies|
|Common Cents: Preparing Kids for Their Life's Road Trip||In today's world, kids may have even more difficulty choosing an occupation as additional career opportunities have evolved and expanded in our complex world. Learn what you can do to help prepare your kids for their future.
|Show Me the Shreds||This interactive lesson walks students through the currency process from production to final shredding. They learn how the fitness of a bill is determined, the average lifespan, and how bills are recycled.
||6-12||Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank, fit/unfit currency, counterfeit|
|Teaching Tips: Student Debt
||The article, "Assessing the impact: U.S. student loan debt reaches $1 trillion," from the Spring 2013 issue of TEN Magazine, introduces students to the topic of rising student loan debt, which has led to an increase in default rates on these loans.
||9-12||Bankruptcy, debt, default, economic growth, human capital, loan, labor force, recession, student loan deferment, student loan forbearance, student loan forgiveness, subsidized student loan, unemployment|
|Economic Exploration Traveling Trunk||The Economic Exploration Traveling Trunk has been created for high school students to learn about economics and personal finance, and the importance of both in their everyday lives. The trunk includes extension activities in math, reading and social studies. The trunk offers a binder of lessons and activities designed to teach high school students about the economy and financial responsibility. Economic sector visuals, as well as shirts and props for a role play, are provided.
||9-12||economics, personal finance, Federal Reserve|
|Exploring Economic Sectors||This lesson will introduce students to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book and how this report assesses economic conditions in the U.S. through looking at changes in different economic sectors.
|Core Concept Cards||Core Concept Cards are designed to provide a strong foundation of economic and personal finance vocabulary for secondary students. The accompanying Teacher Resource Guide provides activities and games to help integrate economic vocabulary into economics, business, personal finance, government and social studies
||9-12||Economics and personal finance concepts|
|Common Cents: Laying the foundation for responsible credit use||Responsible credit use develops through a foundation of strong personal finance principles and an understanding of the costs and benefits of credit. An awareness of the CARD Act helps your teen learn the rights and responsibilities of consumers using credit. A "Credit Clue" quiz reinforces these concepts.
|Common Cents: Hitting the Books by Surfing the Web||Using the updated resources of FederalReserveEducation.org, a national econ ed website, and KansasCityFed.org, a Tenth District website, will help students and parents stay current in economics and personal finance.
||K-12||economics, personal finance|
|Common Cents: Watch and Learn||Help kids develop healthy money personalities through positive role modeling by parents when dealing with financial matters.
||K-12||saving, spending, money management|
|Common Cents: Payday on Report Card Day?||Child psychologists, parents and teachers have long debated the pros and cons of the money-for-grades issue. What are the costs and benefits of using incentives for grades?
||K-12||Personal finance, incentives|
|Common Cents: Investments – The gifts that keep on giving||This article reviews the different investment options for youth, including savings accounts, certificates of deposit, saving bonds, 529 savings plans and stocks. An investment word match activity is included.
||5-12||investments, savings, CDs, savings bonds, stocks|
|Common Cents: The Art of Negotiation||This article discusses the importance of negotiation, from the early days of bartering to present-day wage increases. Strategies to build negotiation techniques are given, including sample role plays to develop this skill.
|Common Cents: Oh Where, Oh Where has Our Work Ethic Gone?||This article discusses that the characteristics of good work ethic, including consistent effort, perseverance and positive attitude, are not as prevalent as they once were in kids. Suggestions to develop a better work ethic at home are given. A "Work Habits Checklist" for kids is included.
|Common Cents: Beyond the Lemonade Stand||This article discusses kids as entrepreneurs and gives steps to develop a business plan for a successful kid venture. Suggestions for marketing the business and providing good customer service are shared.
||K-12||entrepreneur, business, goods , service|
|Bite-sized Economic Activities||Teacher Talk Planner 2010-2011: This spiral bound resource provides an economic or personal finance concept per month for educators that can be incorporated into the K-12 classroom easily to be used for short lessons or review.
economics, personal finance
|Another Bite of Economics Activities||Teacher Talk Planner 2011-2012: This spiral bound resource provides an economic or personal finance concept per month for educators that can be incorporated into the K-12 classroom easily to be used for short lessons or review.
economics, personal finance
|Recession Lesson: Uncertainty||This lesson defines economic uncertainty and gives an overview of its role in the latest recession. It includes visual data of stock market volatility and the TED spread. 9/11 is used as a historical example. Two student activities are given to reinforce the concept.
|Recession Lesson: Asset Bubbles||This lesson defines asset bubbles and gives an overview of its role in the latest recession. It includes visual data of the relationship between home price and income growth. The Farm Crisis of the 1980s is used as a historical example. Two student activities are given to reinforce the concept.
||9-12, Adult||recession, asset bubbles|
|Recession Lesson: Saving Habits||This lesson emphasizes the increase in savings habits due to the most recent recession and its aftermath. It includes visual data that looks at the savings rates of several countries. The Great Depression is used as a historical example. Two student activities are given to reinforce the concept.
||9-12, Adult||savings, recession|
|Recession Lesson: Moral Hazard||This lesson defines moral hazard and gives an overview of its role in the latest recession. It includes information on how to avoid moral hazard and provides examples. Two student activities are given to reinforce the concept.
||9-12, Adult||moral hazard, recession|
|Banker's Resource Guide||This guide suggests resources for bankers to use in presenting financial concepts in the classroom. These resources are divided into elementary, middle and high school levels and include lesson plans, role plays, activities and Traveling Trunk materials.
|Balance of Power Teaching Guide||This book explores the Federal Reserve Bank's role throughout history, emphasizing the theme of independence of the central bank from political control. The Balance of Power Teaching Guide will help students develop an overview of the functions of the Federal Reserve and its responsibilities to U.S. citizens by looking at the challenges that the Federal Reserve has faced, as well as the resulting changes in its role.
||9-12||Federal Reserve Bank, central banking|
|Professor Finance and the Fed Boy Meet the Catastrophe Clan||This role play introduces students to the use and misuse of credit in a humorous format and emphasizes the importance of wise financial decision making.
||7-10||credit, credit history, credit report, interest rate, payday lending, bankruptcy, CARD Act, Federal Reserve Bank|
|Common Cents: 'Tis the season for smart shopping||Get your kids in the habit of comparison shopping and encourage smart spending. This practice will help them budget and avoid impulse buys, developing these skills for adulthood.
||K-12||saving, budget, price, comparison shopping|
|Common Cents: Tough times are an opportunity to teach children financial concepts||During the recent economic downturn, one of the more difficult tasks for parents is explaining their financial situation to children. These trying financial times can be a segue to help children become more financially literate.
||K-12||decision-making, budget, unemployment, income, expense, saving|
|Teaching Tips: Recessions 101||"Teaching Tips" provide ways that teachers can integrate current issues into their classrooms using Federal Reserve research. The article "Recessions 101: When is a downturn a recession?" from the spring 2009 issue of TEN magazine examines when an economy officially enters a recessionary period. Read and discuss the article in class using the direct discussion questions and extension activities.
||9-12||economic growth, GDP, recession, unemployment|
|Common Cents: Financial responsibility begins in childhood||Parents can teach kids the importance of saving money by helping children visualize financial concepts in their own frame of reference. A child may not be able to define "opportunity cost" or "compound interest," but sharing children's books may help them understand basic financial concepts.
||K-12||money, saving, spending, income, saving account|
|Teaching Tips: Is Your Bank Account Safe?||"Teaching Tips" provide ways that teachers can integrate current issues into their classrooms using Federal Reserve research. In the President's Message, Thomas Hoenig, the president of the Kansas City Fed, discusses what happens when a bank fails and how the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) steps in following a bank's closing. Read and discuss the article in class using the direct discussion questions and extension activities.
||9-12||banking, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, liquidate|
|Brain Drain||In this lesson, the concept of "brain drain," or loss of skilled labor from one area to another due to this labor's movement to a more favorable economic environment, is explored with students. After reading a scenario about brain drain in a rural community, students discuss why it might occur and the resulting effects on the economy of the town.
||9-12||Brain drain, PACED decision-making model, alternatives, criteria|
|Money Museum Lessons||These lessons focus on the Federal Reserve Bank and how it helps to control the growth of the U.S. money supply.
||9-12||money supply, fractional reserve banking system, reserve requirements, money multiplier, monetary policy, inflation, interest rates|
|Teaching Tips: Education, Minorities and Job Opportunities||"Teaching Tips" provide ways that teachers can integrate current issues into their classrooms using Federal Reserve research. This issue of the Main Street Economist focuses on the correlation between educational level and job opportunities for minorities in the Midwest. Read and discuss the article in class using the direct discussion questions and extension activities.
||9-12||economic growth, human capital, employment, labor force, education|
|Teaching Tips: Can Ethanol Power the Rural Economy?||"Teaching Tips" provide ways that teachers can integrate current issues into their classrooms using Federal Reserve research. The January 2007 issue of the Main Street Economist focuses on the growth and success of ethanol in many rural communities across the nation. Read and discuss the article in class using the direct discussion questions and extension activities.
||9-12||production, supply, demand, trade-off, productivity|
|The Money Circle Curriculum Series||The Money Circle is a free, classroom-ready curriculum that features money, economics and personal finance concepts for secondary students. Lessons include step-by-step teacher instructions and align to standards set by the National Council on Economic Education, the Jump$tart Coalition and can be easily adapted to other state standards.
||9-12||money, saving, investing, decision-making, budgeting, careers, jobs, Federal Reserve, monetary policy, personal finance|
|Do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur - and is my community ready?||This lesson provides students with the opportunity to identify what an entrepreneur is and how entrepreneurship encourages economic growth and development. Students will have the opportunity to research the level of entrepreneurship present in their own county, evaluate the factors that spur entrepreneurship in their region and consider how they might contribute to the entrepreneurial spirit in their community.
||9-12||entrepreneurship economic growth, entrepreneurship, productive resources|
|Teaching Tips: Laboring to Recover||The article “Laboring to Recover” from the winter 2010 issue of TEN Magazine looks at the U.S. unemployment rate during the current downturn as compared to previous recessions. It discusses the possibility of a jobless recovery based on changes in labor market trends and the ongoing banking crisis. The article projects that unemployment may take a number of years before returning to pre-recession levels.
||9-12||credit, economic growth, entrepreneurship, Federal Reserve, fiscal policy, gross domestic product (GDP), labor market, monetary policy, recession, unemployment rate|
|The Fed and You Lesson Plan||This lesson gives students an overview of the Federal Reserve System and its three central missions - monetary policy, supervision and regulation, and financial services. They will watch "The Fed and You" and take notes on important facts they learn about the functions of the Fed. After viewing the short video, students will become reporters, using their notes to write an article for the school or local newspaper about their knowledge of the Fed.
||9-12||entrepreneurship economic growth, entrepreneurship, productive resources|
|Teaching Tips: Food Prices and Global Trends||This article looks at global and U.S. food price trends and explains how high agriculture commodity prices drive global food prices..
||9-12||commodities market, consumer price index, demand, inflation, labor, recession, supply, wage|
|Teaching Tips: Rural Manufacturing
||The article "Rebuilding Rural Manufacturing" from the second 2012 issue of The Mainstreet Economist examines rural manufacturing trends and explains the recent rebound in rural manufacturing due to increased productivity in high-skilled manufacturing industries, such as petroleum, coal, machinery, chemical and food products.
||9-12||commodities market, demand, durable goods, gross domestic product (GDP), employment rate, inflation, innovation, manufacturing, productivity, recession, technological changes|