Lesson Plan for 2004 U.S. Federal Government Budget

 

This could take one period or this could take up to 4 periods.  You decide:

 

  1. You can bring the students to the computer lab.  Have them click on the lesson:

 

Have them answer the multiple choice questions on a piece of paper and at the end of the test, have the students turn in their answers, and then evaluate their test.  The computer they are working on must have Javascript for the evaluation to work.  Also, some students cheat and go straight to the bottom and press evaluate and gets all the right answers.  You have to stand in the back of the computer room and watch them take the test. 

 

http://apecon.us/federalbudget2.swf    Macromedia Flash Presentation

http://apecon.us/budget_quiz.htm        Multiple Choice Questions Interactive

 

  1. You can give each students in the class the one-page Word Document of The 2004 U.S. Federal Government Budget.

 

http://reffonomics.com/FederalBudget2004.htm

 

Divide the students into groups (a group of five have a propensity to work better than a group of 10).  After the students have read the Macromedia Flash and sort of understand the budget, each group of five students will try to balance the budget.  Obviously, the Federal Government is not going to balance the budget in a year; however, by having the students try to balance the budget in a year, this gives students the urgency of any possible present and future cause and effect relationships.

 

The second day have two or three of the groups band together and “hack out a better budget,” and they will compete against the other two or three groups you have band together who will do a similar thing.  Tell them to get ready to debate the other’s policies the next day.  The groups cannot ask you any questions.  If they want to ask a question, it’s $10.   Students tend to retain more information if they are to do it on their own.  Let the students know at the beginning of the period on how they will be graded the next day:

 

Grading rubric:  http://reffonomics.com/GradingRubricfor2004Budget.htm

 

The last day, the two MAJOR groups present their proposal to balance the budget.  You sit in the back and grade them according to the grading rubric that you have talked to them about already.  One group gets an A; the other group gets a C, D, or F, you decide the punishment.  People are driven by positive incentives, negative incentives, or both. 

 

Hope you enjoy the lesson.