1. Bellringer
1. Why did you choose to take this course?
2. What other advanced courses have you taken
during high school?
3. If you weren’t here right now, what one thing
would you be doing right now?

2. Write your name in/on it
Stickers or décor ok!
Back: Reverse, non-alpha glossary
Show slideshare and wordpress

3. Opportunity Cost
• Next best option
• What you gave up to be here
• “I don’t get paid to be here”.

4. What is economics?
• Study of how people
make choices
• You made a choice by
coming to class today
• But that choice also
has a cost

5. Economics
• People face trade-offs
• Hundreds of choices
each day
• Every choice means you
refuse something else
• Examples?

6. Humans have limited
resources and
unlimited wants
Economist
Enlightened Philosophy
Alan Greenspan
Ben Stein
$1 prize:
only President
with
economics
Greg Mankiw

7. Choices
Can’t do
everything
Limits on life?
Examples?

8. Opportunity Cost
Next best option
Next best trade off
Other examples?

9. 3. Rational People Think at the Margin
• Cost benefit analysis
• Video clip
• Benefits?
• Costs?
• Other
examples?
http://www.yadayadayadaecon.com/clip/7/

10. 4. People Respond to incentives
Positive incentives
Carrots
Sunnyside laptops
College Scholarships
Other examples?
Negative incentives
Sticks
Laws

11. 5. Trade can make everyone better off
• Gain by profit
• “Buy low, sell high”
• Utility
• Test it?

12. Value, in economic terms
2 ways economists measure value of
a good/service:
1. Price – (How much are you
willing to pay?)
2. Utility (how happy does this
make me?)

13. Paradox of Value
• Some items have low prices and high
usefulness (water)
• Others are almost useless, but have high
prices (diamonds)

14. Assignment, due next Monday 8/12/2013
1. Acquire the Mankiw text, either paper or
electronic version
2. Read page “How to read this book” -2 easiest
and why, 2 new ideas and why
3. Write a worksheet or lesson to teach regular
students about opportunity cost & marginal
analysis
Can be the same paper or electronic:
travis.klein@tusd1.org