Federal Reserve Economic Fundamentals: Middle School Curriculum

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 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.

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.

Eggs-ternal Costs

In this lesson, students participate in an egg hunt. Through the activity, students recognize that some actions people take have external costs--that is, the actions impose costs on others. Students learn that property rights have a role in reducing external costs.

Lesson PowerPoint Slides  /  Answer Key 

What is an Entrepreneur?

This lesson plan teaches middle school students about how entrepreneurs organize resources and accept risks through biographical analysis. Assessment includes group presentations in which students examine entrepreneur biographies and identify types of innovation.

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.

Trading Hurdles

This active lesson has students encounter physical barriers that represent natural and government-imposed trade barriers. Students see that trade barriers reduce the flow of goods and services among countries.

Lesson PowerPoint Slides  /  Answer Key

Living on Dollar Street

This lesson plan teaches middle school students to compare living standards across countries by analyzing income and quality of life using Dollar Street data. Students are assessed via a handout that evaluates their observations and understanding of income-driven living standards.

Functions and Characteristics of Money

Students work in small groups to analyze a series of scenarios and determine which characteristic or function of money is being described.