Unit 4: Global Connections
About Unit 4
Currently in progress. Following the principles of backward design, we’ve started by developing the assessment. Lessons will be released as they are completed, and we aim to have the entire unit ready by Fall 2025.
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Lessons build on one another and are designed to be used sequentially. If you plan to use one of the lessons in isolation, review the Overview documents (Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4).
4.1 Why Are Some Nations Richer than Others?
Students are introduced to how economists analyze the wealth and poverty of nations. Through a hands-on activity, they explore determinants of national wealth and dispel common misconceptions.
4.2 Exploring How Institutions Shape Prosperity
Students evaluate policies most likely to improve a country’s standard of living. Through a simulation, they explore how effective institutions support a higher standard of living. A debrief connects the activity to real-world examples through a short reading and podcast excerpt.
4.3 Investments That Drive Economic Growth
Through a digital simulation and debrief students explore how investments in public health and education boost productivity and drive economic growth. Watch a short video tutorial.
4.4 Analyzing Costs and Benefits of Investing in Human Capital
Using analogy, data analysis, and recent research, students consider how education impacts productivity and GDP per capita. The lesson concludes with students applying their economic thinking skills to evaluate policy proposals.
4.5 Infrastructure and Economic Growth: A PACED Analysis
With the PACED decision-making model, students evaluate three real-world infrastructure projects, weighing short- and long-term costs and benefits to determine their impact on economic growth.
4.6 Technological Innovation and Economic Growth
Students explore how investments in technological innovation drive economic growth through a reading and simulation. Lesson activities highlight the costs of innovation and its varied short-term impacts on different groups.
4.7 Investing in the Future: Economic Growth Proposal*
Students apply their learning by proposing a local spending project aimed at promoting economic growth and improving the standard of living in their community.
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4.8 Why Trade Is Sweet
Students engage in a simulation to explore how voluntary exchange increases efficiency and improves outcomes, with a debrief highlighting both the advantages and challenges of trade.
4.9 Comparative Advantage and Gains from Trade
Students use economic models to analyze opportunity cost, specialization, and how trade creates mutual gains by expanding consumption possibilities.
4.15 Recommendations from a Development Economist*
Students complete a summative assessment where they evaluate policy proposals and make recommendations to improve a country's standard of living, using economic principles and data.
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