Kids' Money For Teachers
7th Grade

Typical Course of Study

Academic Standards

Concept 1: Foundations of Economics

Concept 1 Performance Objectives for the 7th Grade

The foundations of economics are the application of basic economic concepts and decision-making skills. This includes scarcity and the different methods of allocation of goods and services.

Concept 1 Performance Objectives for 7th Grade

• PO 1. Explain how limited resources and unlimited human wants cause people to choose some things and give up others.
• PO 2. Analyze how scarcity, opportunity costs, and trade-offs influence decision making.
• PO 3. Identify how governments and businesses make choices based on the availability of resources.
• PO 4. Describe the characteristics of a market economy:

  a. property rights

  b. freedom of enterprise

  c. competition

  d. consumer choice

  e. limited role of government

Concept 2: Microeconomics

Concept 2 Performance Objectives for the 7th Grade

• PO 1. Identify the functions and relationships among various institutions (e.g., business firms, banks, government agencies, labor unions, corporations) that make up an economic system.
• PO 2. Describe how (private) investment in human capital such as health (e.g. immunizations), education (e.g., college), and training of people (e.g., on the job experience), leads to economic growth.
• PO 3. Describe how investment in physical capital (e.g., factories, machinery, new technology) leads to economic growth.
• PO 4. Describe the role of entrepreneurs (e.g., Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Vanderbilt) in the free enterprise system.
• PO 5. Describe the function of private business in producing goods and services.
• PO 6. Describe how the interaction between buyers and sellers determines market prices.
• PO 7. Explain how the (unequal) distribution of income affects public policy and standards of living.
• PO 8. Describe the government’s investment in human capital:

  a. health

  b. education

  c. training of people

• PO 9. Describe the government’s investment in physical capital (e.g., NASA, transportation).
• PO 10. Describe the government’s role in economic recovery for the individual (e.g., farm subsidy, securities, Social Security, exchange regulations).

Concept 3: Macroeconomics

Concept 3 Performance Objectives for the 7th Grade

• PO 1. Describe the effects of inflation (e.g., higher prices, rising interest rates, less business activity) on society.
• PO 2. Analyze the effects (e.g., inflation, unemployment) of the Great Depression.
• PO 3. Analyze the government’s role (e.g., FDIC, Securities and Exchange Commission) in national economic recovery.
• PO 4. Describe how scarcity influences the choices (e.g., war time rationing, women in the work force, reallocation of resources) made by governments and businesses.

Concept 4: Global Economics

Concept 4 Performance Objectives for 7th Grade

• PO 1. Explain how voluntary exchange benefits buyers and sellers.
• PO 2. Identify the patterns of economic interaction (e.g., national debt, balance of trade) between countries.

Concept 5: Personal Finance

Concept 5 Performance Objectives for 7th Grade

• PO 1. Describe how scarcity influenced the historical times studied.
• PO 2. Describe how scarcity influences personal financial choices (e.g., buying on-margin, budgeting, saving, investing, credit).
• PO 3. Describe how income for most people is determined by the value of the goods and services they sell.
• PO 4. Describe types of personal investments (e.g., saving accounts, stocks, bonds).