Syllabus


 * ===Economics===

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||  ||   || ===Overview: This economics class is designed to help High School student's understand the basics of our economy and more importantly to understand how the economy effects them. Therefore the class will be a combination of classic economics, mixed in with quite a bit of personal (or consumer) economics.=== ||

Some of the topics we will be covering:

 * ===__Classic Economics__===
 * ===Opportunity Costs===
 * ===Supply and Demand===
 * ===The Stock Market===
 * ===The Federal Reserve Banking System===
 * ===Gross Domestic Product===
 * ===Trade Deficit (and Surplus)===
 * ===Taxes; Federal, State, Local=== ||  ||   || ===__Personal Economics__===
 * ===Income Taxes (each student will complete a 2008 EZ-form).===
 * ===Loans: student, auto, home, etc.===
 * ===Banking, checking, and budgeting (There will be a three-month long checkbook project).===
 * ===Investing and Compound Interest===
 * ===How Banks Operate===
 * ===Housing; Renting vs. Buying===
 * ===Cars: Buy or Lease?===
 * ===Credit Cards; how they work and how to avoid debt=== ||

__**Some highlights of the course:**__

 * =====Each student will participate in "The Stock Market Contest" - where each students starts with $50,000 to buy stocks. At the end of a three-month period the person who earns the most money gets an automatic '100' in the class.=====
 * =====Each student will participate in "The Checkbook Project" - where each student will create a monthly personal budget for all of the monthly expenses incurred by an ordinary adult. Then each students will receive two monthly paychecks and be responsible for writing checks and paying bills according to their income and budget.=====
 * =====We will watch the film "[|Maxed Out]" - a powerful documentary about the problem of credit card and other personal debt in America.=====
 * We will use information; articles, films, audio-slideshows, charts, etc. from __//The New York Times//__ to keep up-to-date on the current economic climate in America and around the world.
 * We will read the book "__//Rich Dad, Poor Dad//__" - which tries to encourage people to make money work for them - instead of the other way around.