Buyer Beware! Economics Activities for Middle School Students

over $100 billion. In the United States alone, the teen market accounts for $27 billion in consumption expenditure per year (Moses 2000). Not surprisingly, corporate America is aware of the size and importance of the youth market, and as teens begin to make major purchasing decisions for the first time in their lives, corporations vie for their dollars, looking for current sales and lifelong consumer loyalty. In recent years, large corporations have discovered new channels into the youth market, such as teen-focused retail outlets, promotional booths at rock concerts, internet advertisement, and productrelated Web sites (Music 2000). In addition, established companies, such as Pepsi, have focused on creating new products and repositioning existing products toward the young buyer (New/Redirected Products 2000). Given the environment in which American youth begin to make independent buying decisions, I believe that it is important to arm them with the tools necessary to respond to the marketing barrage and to navigate the financial waters that lie ahead. Unfortunately, most teens will not receive that education in public school. In a 1998 National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) survey, researchers found that only twenty-eight states required the implementation of an economics standard in their curriculum, and only sixteen states required students to take an economics course in high school. Because of the lack of resources dedicated to economic education, I do not find it surprising that the NCEE found that “most American adults and students flunk a basic economic test” (NCEE 1999). With only a modest improvement in the statistics in the most recent NCEE survey (thirty-four states currently require the implementation of an economics standard and seventeen require an economics course in high school), the NCEE continues to identify economic literacy as an important educational priority for Americans, particularly students (NCEE 2003). Although there is a strong case for teaching economics at the middle school level, there are practical hurdles to making that goal a reality. Academic economists, who are well trained in economic theory and its applications, are not trained, generally, in the theory and application of effective curriculum development and teaching methods for the middle school classroom. Primary and secondary school teachers, who have training and experience in developing and delivering curriculum, rarely have a background in economics. That creates a divide that academic economists and middle school educators must bridge so that they can better serve teens who are beginning to make a lifetime of economic decisions. In this article, I contribute to the bridge-building by presenting four activities that teach basic economic concepts and consumer decision making through active problem solving. My goal in designing the curriculum is to address some National Council on Economic Education content standards (NCEE 2003) through a student-centered, problem-solving approach. I require students to wrestle with economic decisions, and I equip them with some of the knowledge and tools that they need to make good economic decisions and become savvy consumers. I have successfully used this set of activities with middle school students in the introductory porBuyer Beware! Economics Activities for Middle School Students