Recommended Resource List for AP Macroeconomics

UNIT 1

Production Possibilities Curve Video Series: The Production Possibilities Curve

These videos explain how the production possibilities curve (PPF) illustrates important economic concepts including scarcity, economic growth and opportunity costs.

• Part 1: The Production Possibilities Curve--Scarcity & Opportunity Cost
• Part 2: The Production Possibilities Curve--Underemployment & Economic Growth
• Part 3: The Production Possibilities Curve--Increasing Opportunity Cost

Lesson Plan: Comparative Advantage

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.

Economic Lowdown Video Series: Demand, Supply & Equilibrium

This video series illustrates the forces consumers and suppliers experience in a market to determine prices and the quantity produced.

• Part 1: Demand
• Part 2: Supply
• Part 3: Equilibrium

UNIT 2

Video: Circular Flow

Show how households and businesses interact in the market for resources and in the market for goods and services, and see how money keeps the whole process moving.

Interactive Modules: GDP

These interactive assignments defines and explains the components of gross domestic product, how it is measured and how data is used by policymakers to influence the economy.

• Part 1: GDP--What Is It?
• Part 2: GDP--Measurement & Growth
• Part 3: GDP--Policy

Interactive Modules: Unemployment

These interactive assignments outlines the three types of unemployment and the importance of how those statistics are measured and used.

• Part 1: Types of Unemployment
• Part 2: Measuring Unemployment

Video: Inflation

This video assignment explains what inflation is, what causes it, how it is measured, and the Federal Reserve’s goal for the inflation rate.

Reading: The Inflation Rate is Falling, but Prices are Not

This reading assignment explains the seeming paradox we see in our economy: The inflation rate is decreasing, but prices continue to increase.

Lesson Plan: The Economic Goal of Price Stability

In this lesson, students participate in a mock-quiz exercise to experience effects similar to those that consumers experience when dealing with unstable prices.

Video: Real vs. Nominal GDP

Using an example from a pizzeria, the video explains why it’s important to adjust GDP for inflation when examining GDP over time.

Reading: Business Cycles

This reading assignment on the business cycles includes information on the characteristics of the business cycle, theories on the causes of the business cycle, and how those theories have evolved since the Great Recession.

Data Dashboard: Economic Indicators

This online data dashboard that provides the most recent data on Gross Domestic Product, Consumer Price Index, and unemployment to supplement your teaching.

UNIT 3

Aggregate Demand / Aggregate Supply Video Series

This video assignment introduces the benefits and costs of international trade that affect both consumers and producers when there are negative and positive demand shocks.

• Part 1: Negative Demand Shock
• Part 2: Positive Demand Shock

Interactive Module: Long Run Equilibrium

This interactive module assignment describes how positive and negative demand shocks cause changes to real GDP, price level, and unemployment in the aggregate demand / aggregate supply model.

Interactive Modules: Fiscal Policy

Cover basic elements of government taxation and spending as well as how policy can influence the economy.

• The Basics of Taxation & Government Spending
• Tools for Influencing the Economy

Video: Automatic Stabilizers

This video assignment explains automatic stabilizers and how they help smooth the business cycle.

UNIT 4

Reading: Real Interest Rate

This reading assignment includes an explanation of what the real interest rate is as well as how it affects borrowing, lending, and investment.

Audio: Getting Real about Interest Rates

Learn how inflation influences the real return on your savings deposits, how it impacts borrowers and lenders differently, and why price stability—a responsibility of the Federal Reserve System—is so important.

Video: What Is Money?

This video assignment describes the three functions of money and the six characteristics that makes money what it is.

Curriculum: Teaching the New Monetary Policy Tools

These teaching resources will help you and your students master the new way the Fed conducts monetary policy.

UNIT 5

Audio: Economic Growth

This audio assignment looks at economic growth—how innovation and technological progress can make things happen for the economy over time by organizing the factors of production to be more productive.

Reading: What Are the Ingredients for Growth?

This reading assignment discusses the role that economic institutions play in fostering long-term economic growth.

Reading: The Economics of Subsidizing Sports Stadiums

This issue of Page One Economics describes some economic pros and cons communities face when considering massive construction projects for professional clubs.

Lesson Plan: Government Spending & Taxes

Students match programs for low-income people with the type of economic inequity the program addresses and observe an activity simulating tax payments and transfers.

UNIT 6

Lesson Plan: Ringgits, Rupees & Rials

In this lesson, students engage in a scavenger hunt to find the exchange rate for the currency of 24 countries. They use the information and other resources to answer questions related to the geography, trade, and currency of these countries.

Reading: International Trade--Making Sense of the Trade Deficit

This reading assignment discusses the role that economic institutions play in fostering long-term economic growth.

Reading: Is a Strong Dollar Better than a Weak Dollar?

Learn more about foreign exchange rates in this reading assignment.

Lesson Plan: Government Spending & Taxes

Students match programs for low-income people with the type of economic inequity the program addresses and observe an activity simulating tax payments and transfers.

GENERAL RESOURCES

Entrance & Exit Tickets for the AP Macro Classroom

These five-minute informal assessments quickly introduce AP Macro content to students and provide immediate feedback to instructors.

Infographic Posters

Infographics are graphic representations of information that allow viewers to grasp information quickly. Use these infographics in the classroom to teach and reinforce economic and personal finance concepts in a colorful and easy-to-understand format.