Federal Reserve Economic Fundamentals: High School Curriculum

OVERVIEW

Federal Reserve Economic Fundamentals (FREF) is a great way to incorporate economic education into a wide variety of high school courses. Each independent lesson plan contains step-by-step instructions for teachers, all handouts and visuals needed to conduct the activity, and an assessment component to evaluate student learning.

Grade Level

High School

Topics

Decision-Making Markets Role of Government Labor & Income GDP Unemployment Inflation

PACED Pretzels

In this lesson, students learn about and apply the five-step PACED decision-making process through a series of activities, including a taste test.

Invest In Yourself

In this lesson, students identify ways in which people invest in human capital and learn about the link between investment in human capital and earning income.

Lesson PowerPoint Slides / Answer Key

Exploring Careers in Economics

This high-school-level lesson plan teaches students about economics careers through research activities exploring famous economics graduates and career fields. The assessment requires students to write an essay analyzing career options and comparing median incomes.

Is Trade a Zero-Sum Game?

In this activity, students learn a key economic idea: voluntary trade can make both the buyer and seller better off. Students trade candy with different groups of students to see how increasing trade affects welfare.

The Basics of Supply & Demand: A Classroom Cocoa Bean Market

This lesson teaches students about supply and demand through a cocoa bean market simulation where they negotiate prices as buyers and sellers over multiple trading rounds. Students learn to identify equilibrium price, explain how market interactions determine prices, and recognize conditions that create shortages and surpluses.

Comparative Advantage: Trading Brownies & Pizza

Students play the role of producers in two fictional countries and discover that if they specialize and trade, they can produce and consume more goods than they would have been able to produce and consume on their own.

Circular Flow

This lesson teaches students about the circular flow model through a simulation where they role-play as households and businesses in resource and product markets. Students learn to identify productive resources, income payments, and economic relationships.

The GDP Expenditures Equation: How Do We Measure It?

In this active learning lesson, students learn about gross domestic product (GDP) and its components using the expenditures equation. The lesson clarifies the effect that imports have on GDP.

How Do We Measure Unemployment?

This activity is designed to be used as a classroom example to show students how to calculate the civilian unemployment rate.

Teaching About Money, Spending, & Inflation Using an Auction

Students participate in two auctions: the goods in each auction are identical, but the amount of money given to students increases from the first to the second auction. Students learn that if spending grows at a faster rate than the economy's ability to produce goods and services, inflation will result. This inflation is caused by "too much spending chasing too few goods."