Inflation - Lesson Plan and Activities

This is a complete lesson plan that explores the calculations behind inflation, its causes and effects, and why a low, but positive, inflation rate is the policy goal of many governments. (This lesson is part of a larger unit on Economic Indicators.)

THIS DOWNLOAD INCLUDES:

1) Warm Up Activity -- students experience inflation during a classroom auction.

2) PowerPoint Presentation -- contains the lecture and is a guide for all activities.

3) Note Sheet -- students fill out this note sheet during the lecture.

4) Class Activity -- use the CPI to determine if real prices have risen/dropped over time.

5) Homework -- short-answer questions relating back to the lecture.

6) Teacher Materials -- includes a detailed lesson plan, answer keys, and a "Read Me" document explaining how to use the materials included.

TOPICS FOR THE LECTURE:

1) How to calculate inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI)

2) Demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation

3) The costs of inflation

4) The relationship between inflation and unemployment as described by the Phillips Curve

5) Why inflation needs to be controlled

6) Why the optimal rate of inflation is small, but slightly positive

7) Stagflation, hyperinflation, deflation, and disinflation

(If you would like to download one of my PowerPoint slideshows to get a feel for my style, check out my free download here.)

This lesson is the fourth day of a five-day unit on Economic Indicators that was designed using national standards from the Council for Economic Education. It should take 80 - 90 minutes, which is perfect for the block schedule, but it can also be easily split in half for classes that run closer to 50 minutes.

Enjoy!

Inflation - Lesson Plan and Activities by Nick Samsal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.