High school economics can be a really fun class to teach, but it can also feel overwhelming—especially if you’re new to teaching economics or juggling multiple social studies courses at once.
I remember my first time teaching economics (I was also teaching other social studies classes at the same time… so yeah 😅), and I quickly realized how important it is to have engaging, ready-to-go materials that don’t take hours to plan.
That’s exactly why I created my High School Economics Projects Bundle—a set of 6 classroom-tested economics projects designed to save prep time while helping students actually apply economic concepts in real-world situations.
These projects are print-and-go, easy to implement, and built from real classroom experience. You can use them individually, build lessons around them, or structure entire units around project-based learning.
Most importantly, students stay engaged because they’re not just learning economics—they’re using it.
In this post, I’ll walk you through what’s included and highlight a few of the projects in more detail.
What’s Included in This High School Economics Projects Bundle
This bundle includes 6 high school economics projects:
- Budgeting Project for High School Students
- Cost-Benefit Analysis: Economics of the Coronavirus Project
- Supply and Demand: Create Your Own Music Festival Project
- Create Your Own Economy (Zombie Apocalypse Simulation)
- Financial Literacy: College Research Project
- Create Your Own Business Plan Project
Each project is designed to help students apply core economic concepts like scarcity, opportunity cost, incentives, supply and demand, cost-benefit analysis, and financial decision-making.
Together, they give you a flexible set of activities you can use throughout an entire economics course.
Budgeting Project for High School Economics Students
This is one of my favorite projects because it connects economics directly to students’ everyday lives.
In this activity, students step into a real-world scenario where they are earning a monthly income of $2,947 and have $7,000 in savings. From there, they make real-life financial decisions about housing, transportation, food, and lifestyle choices.
Students choose where to live, whether to buy a car or use public transportation, and how they want to spend money on things like entertainment, food, and social activities.
This project naturally brings in key economic concepts like:
- scarcity
- opportunity cost
- trade-offs
- cost-benefit analysis
- wants vs. needs
Because students are making decisions that feel personal, they stay highly engaged throughout the entire activity.
At the end, students reflect on whether their choices were realistic and what they learned about how economics shows up in their everyday lives.
Supply and Demand Music Festival Project (Economics Activity)
This is a great way to take supply and demand off the worksheet and make it interactive.
Students design their own music festival lineup and try to create an event that will generate the highest profit. Then, they conduct in-class surveys to measure demand for different festival options.
After collecting data, students graph their results and determine equilibrium price based on real student responses.
This project helps students understand:
- supply and demand
- equilibrium price
- shortages and surpluses
- determinants of demand
It also gets students moving around the room, talking to classmates, and engaging with data in a way that feels much more like a real-world scenario than a traditional lecture.
Create Your Own Business Plan Project (Entrepreneurship & Economics)
This entrepreneurship project gives students the chance to think like real business owners.
Students create a full business plan, choose a business structure, and explain how supply and demand will impact their product or service.
They then present their business ideas to the class in a pitch-style presentation, where classmates act as potential investors and decide whether they would invest.
This project reinforces concepts like:
- opportunity cost
- incentives
- scarcity
- supply and demand
- cost-benefit analysis
- business structures
It’s a great way to combine economics with creativity, communication, and real-world decision-making.
Why Project-Based Learning Works in High School Economics
Incorporating projects into your economics class is one of the easiest ways to increase engagement while helping students actually apply what they’re learning.
This High School Economics Projects Bundle was designed from real classroom experience to help teachers save time, reduce prep, and make economics more meaningful for students.
You can use each project individually, or structure your economics course around them to build an engaging, project-based learning experience from start to finish.
If you’re looking for high school economics activities and projects that are ready to use and easy to implement, this bundle is a great place to start.
Happy teaching!
