Download 12th Grade AP Microeconomics Standards

Bozeman Public Schools
Social Studies Curriculum
12th Grade
AP Micro-Economics
Essential Question(s): Who am I, how did I get here, and how will I proceed as an informed and
conscientious (productive) citizen of our world?
Essential Understandings: By the end of AP Micro-Economics all students understand the
historical and theoretical development of various economic systems, the influence of the federal
government on the economy, issues surrounding international trade, the role of money, banking
and finance and the role of culture and diversity on economic decisions.
Essential Skills: Throughout Micro-Economics, all students
• Analyze and adapt an inquiry process (i.e. identify question or problem, locate and evaluate
potential resources, gather and synthesize information, create a new product, and evaluate
product and process).
• Apply criteria to evaluate information (e.g. origin, authority, accuracy, bias, and distortion of
information and ideas).
• Synthesize and apply information to formulate and support reasoned personal convictions
within groups and participate in negotiations to arrive at solutions to differences (e.g.
elections, judicial proceedings, economic choices, community service projects).
• Develop habits of mind for historical thinking (See NCHE Habits of Mind).
Content Standards: The content standards, history, civics, geography, economics and
culture/diversity, represent five major strands within the overarching umbrella of social studies.
These five strands are interwoven in the study of economics in the United States and other
economic systems and are aligned with the College Board guidelines.
Process Standards: Process standards are embedded within the content standards of history,
civics, geography, history, economics and culture/diversity. These standards reflect student
understanding of how to access, synthesize, and evaluate information to communicate and apply
social studies knowledge to real world situations.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, AP Microeconomics
Updated January 20, 2010
Page 1 of 6
(H) History: Students demonstrate an understanding of the effects of time, continuity, and
change on historical and future perspectives and relationships.
Essential Questions:
• Historical Knowledge:
How is the past revealed, interpreted and understood?
What makes some historical interpretations better than others?
• Relevance:
How and why is the past relevant to me, my community, my nation and our world?
Can an individual change history or is history inevitable? (Why?)
• Conflict/Cooperation:
How do conflict and cooperation shape (benefit/destroy) societies?
In historical interactions, why do conflicts arise and how are they resolved?
• Perspective:
Whose story is it and how and why is it being told?
• Change/Continuity:
What causes change and continuity in history and why? (ex: economics, technology,
politics, environment, traditions etc.
H.1.0 Students understand the historical and theoretical development of various economic
systems.
H.1.1 Students analyze and evaluate competing economic theories.
H.1.2 Students evaluate developmental trends in U.S. fiscal policy.
(C) Civics: Students analyze how people create and change structures of power, authority, and
governance to understand the operation of government and to demonstrate civic responsibility.
Essential Question(s):
• Has the American experiment in democracy been successful?
• What is the best relationship between a government and the people it governs?
• Why do civic life, politics, and government exist and how does each fulfill human needs?
(Primary EQ: Why have a government?)
• Why are some governments better than others?
• What should be the role of the U.S. in world affairs and how do U.S. behaviors and actions
affect other nations and vice versa?
C.1.0 Students analyze the influence of the federal government on the American economy.
C.1.1 Students understand how the role of the government in a market economy often
includes providing for national defense, addressing environmental concerns, defining and
enforcing property rights, attempting to make markets more competitive and protecting
consumer rights.
C.1.2 Students identify the factors that may cause the costs of government actions to
outweigh the benefits.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, AP Microeconomics
Updated January 20, 2010
Page 2 of 6
C.1.3 Students describe the aims of government fiscal policies (taxation, borrowing,
spending) and their influence on production, employment and price levels.
C.1.4 Students analyze the effects of deficit spending and evaluate proposed solutions to
problematic deficits.
C.1.5 Students understand the aims and tools of expansionary and contractionary
monetary policy and their influence on economic activity (e.g. the Federal Reserve).
(G): Geography Students apply geographic knowledge and skills (e.g., location, place,
human/environment interactions, movement, and regions).
Essential Question(s):
• Where am I and how do I explain where I am? (need to wordsmith)
• How does place drive the decisions people make?
• How do people interact with their environments?
• What are the causes and effects of human movement?
• What makes places similar and different?
G.1.0 Students analyze the issues surrounding international trade and explain how the U.S.
economy affects, and is affected by, economic forces beyond the United State’s borders.
G.1.1 Students identify the gains in consumption and production efficiency from trade,
with emphasis on the main products and changing geographic patterns of twentiethcentury trade among countries in the world.
G.1.2 Students understand the role of international political borders and territorial
sovereignty in a global economy.
G.1.3 Students describe issues in development for third world countries.
(E): Economics Students make informed decisions based on an understanding of the economic
principles of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption.
Essential Questions:
• Why do people and nations trade?
• How does something acquire value?
• Note: Include in ELEs How do price and supply and demand influence each other? What are
markets and how do they work?
• How do economic systems affect individuals, communities, societies and the world?
• What role should government play in economic systems?
• Which economic systems work best?
• How does technology drive change?
• Do the advantages of globalization outweigh the disadvantages?
E.1.0 Students understand common economic terms and concepts as well as the
fundamentals of economic reasoning.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, AP Microeconomics
Page 3 of 6
Updated January 20, 2010
E.1.1 Students examine the causal relationship between scarcity and the need for choices.
E.1.2 Students define opportunity cost, PPC model, market and circular flow model.
E.1.3 Students explain opportunity cost and marginal benefit and marginal cost.
E.1.4 Students identify the difference between monetary and non-monetary incentives
and how changes in incentives change behavior.
E.1.5 Students analyze the different economic systems that attempt to address basic
economies.
E.1.6 Students evaluate the role of a market economy in establishing and preserving
political and personal liberty.
E.2.0 Students analyze the elements of America’s economy in a global setting.
E.2.1 Students understand the relationship of the concept of incentives to the law of
supply and the relationship of the concept of incentives and substitutes to the law of
demand.
E.2.2 Students discuss the effects of changes in supply and/or demand on the relative
scarcity, price and quantity of particular products.
E.2.3 Students explain the roles of property rights, competition and profit in a market
economy.
E.2.4 Students explain how prices reflect the relative scarcity of goods and services and
perform the allocative function in a market economy.
E.2.5 Students understand the process by which competition among buyers and sellers
determines a market price.
E.2.6 Students describe the effect of price controls on buyers and sellers.
E.2.7 Students analyze how domestic and international competition in a market economy
affects goods and services produced and the quality, quantity, and price of those products.
E.2.8 Students explain the role of profit as the incentive to entrepreneurs in a market
economy.
E.2.9 Students describe the functions of financial markets
E.3.0 Students analyze the elements of the U.S. labor market in a global setting.
E.3.1 Students understand the operations of the labor market.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, AP Microeconomics
Updated January 20, 2010
Page 4 of 6
E.3.2 Students describe the current economy and labor market, including the types of
goods and services produced, the types of skills workers need, the effects of rapid
technological change and the impact of international competition.
E.3.3 Students discuss wage differences among jobs and professions, using laws of
demand and supply and the concept of productivity.
E.3.4 Students explain the effects of international mobility of capital and labor on the
U.S. economy.
E.4.0 Students understand the role of money, banking and finance in the economy.
E.4.1 Students identify the functions and characteristics of money
E.4.2 Students describe the functions of financial institutions.
E.4.3 Students understand how investing contribute to the market economy.
E.4.4 Students identify the benefits and risks with buying stocks.
E.5.0 Students analyze issues of international trade and explain how the U.S. economy
affects, and is affected by, economic forces outside the United States.
E.5.1 Students analyze the importance of trade.
E.5.2 Students compare the effects of free trade and trade barriers on economic activities.
E.5.3 Students understand various trade agreements and why they are forged.
E.5.4 Students explain the foreign exchange, how exchange rates are determined, and the
effects of the dollar’s gaining/losing value relative to other countries.
(D): Culture & Diversity- Students demonstrate an understanding of the impact of human
interaction and cultural diversity on societies.
Essential Questions:
• What is culture, why is it important?
• Who should decide what “culture” and “cultured” are?
• Is there such a thing as cultural superiority? Why?
• How do cultural expressions (including literature, art, architecture, music, technology)
shape history?
• How does cultural diversity impact a society?
• What happens when cultures converge or collide?
• What is morality and ethics?
• Who are the heroes and villains and what do they reveal about a culture?
• In what ways do religion, beliefs, values and/or spirituality contribute to progress, regress,
or stagnation in society?
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, AP Microeconomics
Updated January 20, 2010
Page 5 of 6
D.1.0 Students understand the role culture and diversity can play in determining a group’s
economic decisions.
D.1.1 Students analyze different cultures and the influence they can have on economic
decision-making.
D.1.2 Students explain the function of foreign currency exchange, including
concepts of appreciation and depreciation.
Appendix A
Content Standards: AP Micro-Economics content standards are governed by the AP Program
and the College Board. For more information see the course description and exam information
found at http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/2121.html
Appendix B
Course Audit: A detailed course audit was submitted to the College Board for this course in
2007. For more information visit http://www.collegeboard.com/html/apcourseaudit/
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, AP Microeconomics
Updated January 20, 2010
Page 6 of 6