Course overview

AP Microeconomics will be offered as an optional companion course for seniors who take AP Macroeconomics. As an optional course, AP Microeconomics will be offered virtually, with all students doing no less than 108 hours of course work online through a New York State Board of Regents accredited virtual program. At the end of the course, it is expected that all participating students will sit for the AP Microeconomics Exam. They will receive two Social Studies credits upon completion of the two-semester course.

AP Microeconomics will be offered virtually, through iZone, a New York City Department of Education program that provides teachers and students with access to electronic programs and resources, approved by the New York State Department of Education and Board of Regents. Students will complete all coursework online though iZone and Apex, and will be monitored by the AP Microeconomics teacher. Students will interact with each other and with the AP teacher fully online, and will have the opportunity to attend in-person tutorial sessions during and after school.

AP Microeconomics is a two semester course that will be blended with online instruction as well as in class tutorials and lessons. The AP Microeconomics course is designed as an initial college level course in microeconomics and as a foundation for future college study in economics or business. Each student is expected to take the AP Microeconomics exam that is administered in May. Passing the AP Microeconomics examination will give the student three hours of college credit. Topics discussed will reflect the material included in the booklet AP Economics Course Description from the College Board.

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  Understand the economic way of thinking. It introduces the perspective that economic reasoning skills are valuable critical thinking tools and demonstrates how this perspective enhances user’s ability to analyze and understand human behavior.
  
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  Understand and develop financial literacy skills. The President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy defines personal financial literacy as "the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being." (2008 Annual Report to the President) Financial literacy refers to the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources.
  
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  Understand important economic terms and concepts such as the business cycle, inflation and deflation that are important part of our daily lives.
  
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  Understand the function of product markets and the role of the individual consumer and individual supplier.
  
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  Understand the difference between perfect competition, monopoly, and the other types of markets that exist.
  
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  Understand the effects of factor markets of labor, land, and capital that are required by the individual suppliers to successfully compete in the market.
  
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  Understand the role of government to maintain a fair market for the suppliers and consumers, society as a whole, and to try to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of income.
  
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  Understand and be able to interpret and analyze economic graphs including supply and demand curves, identify consumer and producer surplus, deadweight losses, gains from trade, pricing and cost curves, production possibilities frontiers, and the marginal revenue product and supply curves for labor.
  

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  Are aligned with college and work expectations.
  
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  Are clear, understandable and consistent.
  
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  Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills.
  
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  Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards.
  
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  Are informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society.
  
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  Are evidence-based.
  

1. Quiz with 10 to 20 multiple-choice Questions and 2 short free response questions after each section. This will be done in a traditional setting.

1. Students will be given various articles and readings to do online and in class. They will submit free response questions based on their readings and engage in discussion online and in class. Students become motivated and interested in the subject when they can apply what they are learning to real world situations and events. This will help them better understand the concepts and graphs needed to succeed in AP Microeconomics. Finding good articles for class is easy. Articles can be found in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Economist and various online sites such as Yahoo Finance. This will help them become critical thinkers and be able to interpret and analyze economic graphs including supply and demand curves, identify consumer and producer surplus, deadweight losses, gains from trade, pricing and cost curves, production possibilities frontiers, and the marginal revenue product and supply curves for labor.

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  Visit weaker groups or students so that they can get some individualized instruction.
  
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  Assess where common misunderstandings are happening. If I get questions from several groups on the same part of the problem, I know to review or reteach that idea.
  
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  Students learn to do AP problems in the amount of time they will get on the actual AP Exam. This helps them know how to pace themselves when it counts.
  
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  It also builds confidence and individual achievement. It prepares them for more advanced studies during their college careers.
  
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  They begin to use critical thinking skills, make logical argument so that they can use economics as a method and model for decision making.
  
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  They learn to share their ideas in group settings and give presentations explaining their answers on the board. This builds their presentation and public speaking skills.
  

3. Students will spend Fridays working on financial literacy skills to give them a broader understanding of finance and economics. They will play the stock market game which will give them a better understanding of the capital markets, investment and various financial products such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds and money market. This will be part of their online course experience which will build working together in groups, computer literacy and bring a real world experience of economics to their daily lives. This will be played through the www.stockmarketgame.org This is very easily set up, monitored and can be done with accompanying lessons over the course of a semester or year. This accomplishes assessing students in groups online and is in line with my stated course goals.

1. 
   The Study of Economics - Scarcity Choice and Opportunity Cost – Module 1
   
2. 
   Introduction to Macroeconomics – Economic Growth, Unemployment, Inflation and the Business Cycle – Module 2
   
3. 
   The Production Possibilities Curve Model – Module 3
   
4. 
   Comparative Advantage, Absolute Advantage, Specialization and Trade – Module 4
   
5. 
   Economic Systems – Module 1
   
6. 
   Property Rights and the Role of Incentives – Module 1
   
7. 
   Marginal Analysis - Module 1
   
8. 
   Graphs in economics – Appendix pages 34-45
   

1. 
   Supply and Demand: Introduction and Demand – Module 5
   
2. 
   Supply and Demand: Supply and Market Equilibrium – Module 6
   
3. 
   Supply and Demand: Changes in Supply and Demand – Module 7
   
4. 
   Supply and Demand: Price Controls – Module 8
   
5. 
   Supply and Demand: Quantity Controls – Module 9
   

1. 
   Income and Substitution Effects and Elasticity – Module 10
   
2. 
   Interpreting Price Elasticity of Demand – Module 11
   
3. 
   Other Elasticities – Module 12
   
4. 
   Consumer and Producer Surplus – Module 13
   
5. 
   Efficiency and Deadweight Loss – Module 14
   
6. 
   Utility Maximization – Module 15
   

1. 
   The Production Function – Module 18
   
2. 
   Firm Costs – Module 19
   
3. 
   Long Run Costs and Economies of Scale – Module 20
   
4. 
   Cost Minimizing Input Combinations – Module 36
   
5. 
   Introduction to Market Structures – Module 21
   
6. 
   Defining Profit – Module 16
   
7. 
   Profit Maximization – Module 15
   

1. 
   Introduction to Perfect Competition – Module 22
   
2. 
   Graphing Perfect Competition – Module 23
   
3. 
   Long Run Outcomes in Perfect Competition – Module 24
   
4. 
   Introduction to Monopoly – Module 25
   
5. 
   Monopoly and Public Policy – Module 26
   
6. 
   Price Discrimination – Module 27
   

1. 
   Introduction to Oligopoly - Module 28
   
2. 
   Game Theory – Module 29
   
3. 
   Oligopoly in Practice – Module 30
   
4. 
   Introduction to Monopolistic Competition – Module 31
   
5. 
   Product Differentiation and Advertising – Module 32
   

1. 
   Introduction and Factor Demand – Module 33
   
2. 
   The Markets for land and Capital – module 34
   
3. 
   The Market for Labor – Module 35
   
4. 
   Theories of Income Distribution – Module 37
   

1. 
   Introduction to Externalities – Module 38
   
2. 
   Externalities and Public Policy – Module 39
   
3. 
   Public Goods – Module 40
   
4. 
   Public Policy to Promote Competition: Anti-Trust and Regulation – Module 41
   
5. 
   Income Distribution and Income Inequality – Module 42
   
6. 
   The Economics of Information –Module 43
   
7. 
   Indifference Curves and Consumer Choice – Module 44
   

Session 1: Basic Economic Concepts

These are the suggested questions:

A. Why is it rational for some students to end their formal education with high school degrees, some to finish with college degrees and some to obtain graduate degrees?

B. Beyond the ability to pay tuition, explain why different people stay in school for different lengths of time?

C. How might the nonmonetary cost and benefits of college differ among individuals?

Session 2: Supply and Demand

These are the suggested questions:

1. 
   In 2005 Toyota doubled the supply of Priuses, and yet people were paying high prices than ever for those cars. Explain how an increase in price can accompany an increase in supply.
   
2. 
   As your income increases, what do you think will happen to your demand curve for Folgers coffee? What will happen to the demand curve for Starbucks coffee? Are these goods therefore normal or superior?
   
3. 
   How do you think Magellan’s discoveries affected the market demand curve for spices? What do you think is the main reason for any change in the market demand curve for cinnamon during the past 500 years?
   

Session 3: Behind the Demand Curve: Theory of Consumer Choice

These are the suggested questions:

1. 
   How would you characterize the demand for illegal drugs in the United States? Is that demand (or lack thereof) determined by the fact that the drugs are illegal? What implications does this have for the government’s drug enforcement policy?
   
2. 
   What are some other examples of goods with relatively high and relatively low price elasticity of demand?
   
3. 
   Summarize in your own words the link among diminishing marginal utility, demand and elasticity.
   
4. 
   Explain whether you would expect the demand for the following goods to be elastic or inelastic and why: software programs, cameras, notebook paper, peaches, textbooks, Thanksgiving turkeys, all carbonated beverages, A&W root beer.
   

Session 4: Behind the Supply Curve: Profit, Production and Costs

These are the suggested questions:

1. 
   Of the six types of costs discussed in this chapter, which type is the most important in the decision as to how much of a good or service to produce? Why?
   
2. 
   Which of the following power sources are most likely to come from natural monopolies? Which could be set up either as centralized power sources or as decentralized, soft path sources? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type of set up?
   

1. 
   wind turbines
   
2. 
   hydroelectric power generation along a river
   
3. 
   coal
   
4. 
   oil
   
5. 
   solar
   
6. 
   nuclear
   

Session 5: Market Structures: Perfect Competition and Monopoly

These are the suggested questions:

1. 
   How do markets in your local economy most closely resemble Adam Smith’s ideal of perfect competition?
   
2. 
   Explain Adam Smith’s message about the potential virtues of free markets.
   
3. 
   Explain what characteristics does the hamburger market in your area share with a perfectly competitive industry? What conditions for perfect competition does it violate?
   

Session 6: Market Structures: Imperfect Competition

These are the suggested questions:

1. 
   How gullible are you? Explain the following scenario. Do you tend to believe what you hear from your friends and what you read on the internet? Have you ever learned that these or other information sources had fooled you?
   
2. 
   Do you agree with the institutional economists claim that our information is far from complete? Is the dearth of information an important consideration? Why do you suppose that institutional economics receives less attention than neoclassical economics?
   
3. 
   Would a product’s effects on global warming or acid rain influence your decision to buy it? Can you name the greenhouse gases that cause global warming and the chemicals that cause acid rain? In what sense is this information too costly for most people to obtain?
   

Session 7: Factor Markets

These are the suggested questions:

1. 
   In what situations have you seen diminishing marginal product in action?
   
2. 
   If you were the president of a consulting firm, how would you decide how many consultants to hire?
   
3. 
   What could explain the fact that the band White Stripes has 2 members and the band Linkin Park has 6 members?
   

Session 8: Market Failure and the Role of Government

These are the suggested questions:

1. 
   If someone smokes cigarettes in a desert and no one else is there to smell the smoke, does the smoking create a negative externality? Why or Why not?
   
2. 
   To what extent do people consider only the private costs and overlook the social costs of their actions? Do you consider the burden you impose on others when you and your friends order root beers and split the check? Do you consider the burden on others when you order new shoes thus creating production, transportation and disposal externalities? Do you think about the congestion and pollution you create when you decide how many car trips you take?
   
3. 
   Do you ever participate in adverse selection? How might adverse selection cause you to pay higher interest rates on your credit card balances?