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Home > Education Resources > Middle School

Economic Education

Middle School Economics

Red Envelope  E-mail Alert for Middle School Lesson Plans, Activities and Resources

Middle School Economics & Ten Mile Day

Ten Mile Day: Download Lesson (.pdf)

Middle School Economics & My Side of the Mountain

My Side of the Mountain: Download Lesson (.pdf)

Middle School Economics & Scraps of Time 1960

Scraps of Time 1960: Abby Takes a Stand: Download Lesson (.pdf)

Economics for Middle School & Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story

Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story Download Lesson (.pdf)

Economics for Middle School & Abraham Lincoln and the Five-Dollar Note

Abraham Lincoln and the Five-Dollar Note: Download Lesson (.pdf)

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  • No-Frills Money Skills Video Series — Growing Money
    watch the video
    In this first episode of the No-Frills Money Skills video series, economic education specialist Kris Bertelsen explains compound interest, or "Growing Money." This new video series will cover a variety of personal finance topics using clear, simple language, and graphic elements so that students can better visualize the personal finance content being presented.
  • Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story
    Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story lesson (.pdf, 14 pgs., 1.7 MB)
    Students read the story Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story and learn about effects of apartheid in South Africa. They also learn about the relationship between investment in human capital and income by examining several careers and the skills required for those careers. Using math skills, students compare the number of people in various occupations and interpret and analyze educational attainment data from graphs and tables. (Book written by Beverly Naido / ISBN: 0-590-45384-X)
  • Economics and Personal Finance Glossary
    online glossary
    An economics and personal finance glossary has been added to our website. Our goal is to assist teachers and students with a comprehensive list of terms. If you can't find a term, please notify Barb at barbara.flowers@stls.frb.org.
  • Scraps of Time 1960: Abby Takes a Stand
    Scraps of Time 1960: Abby Takes a Stand lesson (.pdf, 14 pgs., 238 kB)
    whiteboard (.notebook, 20 kB)
    Students read about incidences of racial discrimination and how those incidences were met with methods of protests. They engage in an activity that matches programs for low-income people with the type of economic inequity the program addresses and observe an activity simulating tax payments and transfers. (Book written by Patricia C. McKissack / ISBN: 0-14-240687-2)
  • Abraham Lincoln and the Five-Dollar Note
    Economics for Middle School & Abraham Lincoln and the Five-Dollar Note lesson (.pdf, 28 pgs., 971 kB)
    Students participate in a puzzle activity to identify leadership characteristics that Abraham Lincoln possessed. They review the changes in the redesigned $5 note and consider how Lincoln's leadership characteristics contribute to the fact that he is pictured on the $5 note. Students look at a timeline of Lincoln's life and identify significant events in his road to the White House. They play a game to review content learned in the lesson.
  • Currency and the Fed
    lesson (.pdf, 22 pgs., 1.2 MB)
    Students consider who is pictured on the different denominations of U.S. currency and why. They participate in an activity to identify functions of basic, everyday items and then identify and explain the functions of another basic, everyday item—money. Students learn some basic facts about money as well as some basics about the Federal Reserve System. In addition, they describe the Federal Reserve's role in the distribution of money by identifying features of the $5 note.
  • Fractile vs. Equal
    lesson (.pdf, 14 pgs., 98 kB)
    Students work with data that represent the ages of 24 people to learn the difference between categorizing data in fractile intervals and equal intervals. Students discuss dividing bonus points among class members to understand what per capita means. Then students look at per capita personal income by state using the GeoFRED mapping tool. They compare per capita personal income displayed with data in equal intervals and with data in fractile intervals.
  • Glossary of Economics and Personal Finance Terms
    online glossary
    An economics and personal finance glossary to assist teachers and students with a comprehensive list of defined terms. If you can't find a term, please notify Barb at barbara.flowers@stls.frb.org.
  • Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story
    Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story lesson (.pdf, 14 pgs., 1.7 MB)
    Students read the story Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story and learn about effects of apartheid in South Africa. They also learn about the relationship between investment in human capital and income by examining several careers and the skills required for those careers. Using math skills, students compare the number of people in various occupations and interpret and analyze educational attainment data from graphs and tables. (Book written by Beverly Naido / ISBN: 0-590-45384-X)
  • Little House in the Big Woods
    Little House in the Big Woods lesson (.pdf, 14 pgs., 724 kB)
    whiteboard (.notebook, 203 kB)
    Little House in the Big Woods describes how the Ingalls family produced the goods they needed to survive while living in a log cabin far from their nearest neighbors. In this lesson, students will define the production function as the combination of inputs that results in outputs and will identify the inputs as human resources, capital resources, natural resources, and intermediate goods. (Book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder / ISBN: 0-06-058180-8)
  • Meet Kit: An American Girl
    Meet Kit: An American Girl lesson (.pdf, 10 pgs., 629 kB)
    whiteboard (.notebook, 93 kB)
    Students listen to the story Meet Kit about a young girl's life in America during the Great Depression. They learn through discussion and role-playing about the impact that unemployment and reduced consumer and business spending can have on people's lives. (Book written by Valerie Tripp / ISBN: 1-58485-016-7)
  • My Side of the Mountain
    Middle School Economics & My Side of the Mountain lesson (.pdf, 10 pgs., 629 kB)
    whiteboard (.notebook, 11 kB)
    After reading the book My Side of the Mountain, students discuss the human capital that Sam possessed, the investments in human capital that he made and why these investments were important. Students work in groups to help them define and understand the meaning of investment in human capital, and they create a plan for investing in their human capital. (Book written by Jean Craighead George / ISBN: 0-14-240111-0)
  • On the Court with ... Michael Jordan
    Economics for Middle School & On the Court with Michael Jordan lesson (.pdf, 14 pgs., 189 kB)
    Students participate in a simulation to learn about choices, alternatives, opportunity cost and human capital. They learn the PACED decision-making model, apply the model and recognize that learning the model is an investment in their human capital. (Book written by Matt Christopher / ISBN: 0-316-13792-8)
  • Scraps of Time 1960: Abby Takes a Stand
    Middle School Economics & Scraps of Time 1960 lesson (.pdf, 14 pgs., 238 kB)
    whiteboard (.notebook, 20 kB)
    Students read about incidences of racial discrimination and how those incidences were met with methods of protests. They engage in an activity that matches programs for low-income people with the type of economic inequity the program addresses and observe an activity simulating tax payments and transfers. (Book written by Patricia C. McKissack / ISBN: 0-14-240687-2)
  • Ten Mile Day
    Middle School Economics & Ten Mile Day lesson (.pdf, 23 pgs., 213 kB)
    whiteboard (.notebook, 20 kB)
    In this multidisciplinary lesson, students work in small groups ("work crews") while participating in a production activity. Students learn about competition, division of labor, and incentives. They also demonstrate how division of labor and incentives help lead to greater productivity. (Book written by Mary Ann Fraser / ISBN: 0-8050-4703-4)
  • What is Unemployment, How Is It Measured and Why does the Fed Care?
    lesson (.pdf, 20 pgs., 244 kB)
    In this lesson, students read and interpret choropleth maps, which contain unemployment data. They compare verbal descriptions of the labor market from the Federal Reserve's Beige Book with the mapped data. In addition, students compare unemployment data for different years. Students access or observe how to access this data online.
  • Glossary of Economics and Personal Finance Terms
    online glossary
    An economics and personal finance glossary to assist teachers and students with a comprehensive list of defined terms. If you can't find a term, please notify Barb at barbara.flowers@stls.frb.org.
  • 'Calculating Value' Video
    watch the video
    How much money should you save today in order to have $10,000 in 10 years? If you won the lottery, how will you decide whether to take the lump sum payment? To answer these questions, you need to understand present and future value. Watch an economist from the St. Louis Fed explain.
  • National Economic Education Video Competitions
    learn more about the current competition
  • No-Frills Money Skills Video Series
    watch the videos
    This video series covers a variety of personal finance topics. The brief videos use clear, simple language, and graphic elements so that viewers can better visualize the personal finance content being presented. In the end, they will see how important these concepts are to their everyday lives.