FEE's "Lesson Plans to Celebrate America's Birthday" - America's 250th ECONOMIC Lesson Plans

As I mentioned above, not sure why I didn't see the beginning of this series, but I have now seen 3 updates in the past 2-3 weeks. This series is a combination of new and older lesson plans, but they primarily are focusing on two types of lessons which I describe below. The format of the lessons mostly consists of three parts: 1) a video either used as an introduction to the person or topic; 2) a set of presentation slides to introduce the content and use for the activities; and 3) a traditional lesson plan, usually with 1-2 worksheets or activities to reinforce the content.

Most of the early lessons in the series are featuring people in American business or social history (only 1 political leader so far). They fit into two types of lessons:

What I'm going to feature below is one example of each - a general lesson on economic history, an example of a "Pillars of Character" lesson, and an example of an "America's 250th Resource" lesson. As usual I am just going to sample a few items - NOT provide the entire lesson - that's why you sign up with FEE's Learning Center to see the full list . . . !

LESSON #1 - "America’s Economic Engine: 250 Years of Free Enterprise":

Link to the Learning Center at FEE - https://teachers.fee.org/enrollments

Series Page for "America's 250th Lesson Plans" (again, may require you be signed in to access) - https://teachers.fee.org/pages/america-250 NOTE: This lesson is the orange button at the top of the page

Izzit's "The Invisible Hand" video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR6nEasVGao NOTE: The video is suggested in the lesson plan as a possible extension activity (with worksheet and answer key available)

Sneak Peek (below) of what some elements of the lesson look like (I'm not going to include much, since I want you to visit their website):

This is presented as an economic review, but I think would also work well in a history or civics class as a review of economic connections to the Founding Fathers period (if not specifically to 1776).

LESSON #2 - "AMERICA’S 250TH ECONOMIC MARVELS STUDENT EDITION - Walt Disney":

This is the newest lesson plan, just added this past week. Pretty straightforward format - uses a video clip from A&E Network's "Biography" series, then the worksheet covers both multiple-choice comprehension questions and extended response questions trying to connect elements of Walt Disney's life OR the Disney company to economics concepts. Again, I'm not going to include too much here, but I will start with the "Biography" YouTube series:

Video link to go with the lesson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAtMP73ok78

Here are a couple of selected examples of questions from their video review worksheet (but obviously not the whole thing, since I want you to visit their website):

LESSON #3 - "PILLARS OF CHARACTER - Desmond Doss":

If you remember the movie "Hacksaw Ridge" from a few years ago, you know who Desmond Doss is - one of the most unlikely winners of the Medal of Honor you could imagine. No video included here (probably just as well, since most of you wouldn't be able to use clips from an "R" rated movie anyway) - instead the lesson focuses on an article written by Joey Clark for the Foundation of Economic Education for a wider audience. I will also mention that the people they have chosen for the initial lessons are an interesting mix - relatively few "famous" people, but all people who had to make difficult decisions in times of stress or challenge. I'll just include a couple of screenshots from the slide presentation provided:

“'Hacksaw Ridge' Redefines Heroism", Foundation for Economic Education, Sep 2016, https://fee.org/articles/hacksaw-ridge-redefines-heroism/