Economics is always a tough subject to teach high school seniors. The content can be dry and let’s face it, seniors are most often checked out by their second semester (when high school economics is typically taught). As an economics teacher, you might be wondering how to spice things up in class. One way to get students’ creative juices up during economics is through this Create Your Own Economy Project!
With this project, students imagine a zombie apocalypse and it is up to them to decide the type of economy the community should pursue for the new world! (Note: It is recommended that students have some background knowledge on the different types of economies: mixed, command, traditional, and market economy before completing this project).
I’ll walk through how to do this project with your class but if you want to purchase the complete project, click here!
Create Your Own Economy Overview
First, introduce this project to your class by giving them an overview of what they will be doing. Students get really excited when you tell them a zombie apocalypse has occurred!
Next, explain that students must make a recommendation about the type of economy the community should move forward with. Tell students that by the end of this project, students will create a presentation with arguments for their proposed economy. The presentation should answer the following economic questions:
- What to produce?
- How to produce?
- For whom to produce?
What to produce?
After students have had an overview of what they will be doing for their project, they will tackle the question: What to produce? For this portion of the project, I give them a graphic organizer (like the one below). Using the graphic organizer, students must identify products and/or services they think would be beneficial for the new world.
Questions like “Why is the product or service important and how will this product/service help your community?” help students think deeply about products and services that should be provided.
How to produce?
Once students have had an opportunity to brainstorm products and services to produce, students must then think about the question, “how to produce?”
How to produce is an important economic question for this create your own economy project, because students must think about the resources, time, and people needed to make products/services. After all, products and services don’t just magically appear.
Students might feel stuck when trying to answer this question so giving them examples of how products/services can be made is helpful. Some examples could be:
- People will volunteer to make products and offer services.
- Community leaders will assign people to make products and offer services.
Questions that will help students figure out how products and services will be produced are:
- How will the product or service be made?
- What are the advantages of this method?
- What are the disadvantages of this method?
For whom to produce?
The third economic question students tackle in this economy project, is for whom to produce. Students must decide if services will be allocated amongst members of the community. For example, will all members have equal access to all products or services? This is an important economic question and students have to keep in mind that there are a limited number of products/services.
Questions that will help students decide how products will get divided amongst community members are:
- Will everyone have an equal opportunity to access products/services?
- Will people who need the product/service the most get access to products/services?
- Will the community leaders decide who gets what?
Tying it all together – Create Your Own Economy Presentation
Once students have had time to answer the three questions (What to produce? How to produce? For whom to produce?) they must decide if the community they created is representative of a market, command, traditional, or mixed economy.
They will then put the information they’ve gathered into a presentation. Students will present their economy recommendations to their peers to try to convince them that their economy is the best for the new world.
This is a fun project that allows students to get creative in their economics class!
You can purchase the complete project here! The complete project includes a suggested teaching guide and graphic organizers.
Happy teaching!
