Lessons in Economics - THIS is Ohio Agriculture

"Lessons in Economics - THIS is Ohio Agriculture" is a new educational kit being produced by the Ohio Farm Bureau's Promotion and Education program. The kit includes a video, four lesson guides, a booklet of graphs and other supporting data, three transparencies, a glossary of terms, a list of Internet sites, additional resources and a classroom poster.

The video gives an up-to-date look at Ohio's largest industry - Agriculture. The focus is on the impact of agriculture in everyone's life. Since most students immediately relate to food, agriculture can be a unique vehicle for delivering economic lessons.

The lessons are designed as a series of activities and assessments which focus on Strand IV - Decision Making and Resources of the Ohio Social Studies Model Curriculum. Each of the four lessons addresses one of the learner outcomes related to economics concepts:

• Factors of production
• Producer/consumer decision making
• Supply, demand and price
• Global resource distribution and international trade relations

Each lesson is intended to involve the hands and minds of students and teachers. It was designed to be flexible. All activities do not need to be included. However, each activity broadens the scope and increases the understanding of the concepts. The format of each lesson follows the model below.

Explain

• Written as background information for the instructor
• Identifies concepts, terms and definitions to be grasped in the section

Engage

• Activities which capture students' interest, generates curiosity and uncovers what students know and don't know about the topic
• Often involves asking a question, defining a problem or recognizing a discrepant event

Explore

• Activities that build concepts require the students to find information and construct needed data to support the concept to be learned
• Students work together and ask questions, without constant direction from instructor

Evaluate

• Activities which require students to apply new concepts and ask open ended questions
• Activities which have students assess their own learning

Enrich

• Follows Evaluate because it is intended for use with those who need or want 'more'
• Encourages students to apply and extend knowledge new situations, problems caused or solved, and careers influenced