Apostles and Markets has now paired with The Freedom and Prosperity Academy to provide additional down loadable lessons for teachers of economics. Some of these lessons were presented at the 2010 Conference, "Teaching Economic Freedom and The High School Curriculum." The lessons from the conference were paired with scholarly papers which are meant to provide additional insights for educators into the "big" ideas of the lessons.
Index of Teacher Lessons:
Morton, John: "Trade or Fade"
"Voluntary trade benefits both buyers and sellers because anyone who does not expect to benefit from a trade will not voluntarily participate in that exchange. The idea that both sides benefit from trade is one of the important concepts in economics."
Morton, John: "Why Should We Care About Economic Freedom?"
"This introductory lesson defines economic freedom and illustrates how and why more economic freedom correlates with increased per capita income, increased growth rates, less poverty, increased life expectancy, decreased infant mortality, and more political rights and civil liberties."
Morton, John: : "What Would Adam Smith Say?"
"In the 1700s, when governments led by kings and queens controlled commerce and human behavior, Smith advocated more individual freedom, more economic freedom, freer trade, and less government control. These were radical ideas, but his philosophy has underpinned an economic system that has improved the lives of billions of people around the world."
Schug, Mark: "Do Markets Have Hearts?"
"Market economies require that we serve the needs of others in order to gain the resources we use to fulfill our own needs."
Schug, Mark: "Adopting the Orphan Freedom"
"If the study of economics is relatively rare, the study of ideas related to economics, including economic freedom, is non-existent. There is no explicit mention of the concept of economic freedom, as it is used in this lesson, in the school curriculum."
Schmidtz, David (and Stephen Haessler): On Producers, A Short Lesson with Video Interview.
Here's a lesson plan built around a three minute video clip. The clip is from an interview with Philosopher David Schmidtz. The lesson is intended to highlight an under-emphasized implication of scarcity and a vital aspect of the free economy.
Wentworth, Donald: "Avoiding a Tragedy by Goin' Fishin'"
"The objective is to illustrate why over-harvesting of wild fish populations is leading to species decline in the oceans. This problem is usually considered an example of the Tragedy of the Commons, where common property rights encourage people to harvest the resource but not to care for it in a sustainable manner."
Online Simulations:
Johnson, Cathleen: "The Trust Game"
"In playing the game, students can see for themselves that deals do happen because of mere trust, not because any return is guaranteed."
Johnson, Cathleen: "Price Discovery Through Auction Simulations"
"From this activity they will learn that when buyers and sellers have private (and accurate) information and where prices are free to move, markets allocate resources in a way that maximizes value."
