Lesson Plans

Teacher Workshops

Terms & Theory

Projects for Students

There are many lesson plans that teachers might use to illustrate Adventure themes. One of these, developed especially for the Boston Fed, is Intellectual Property: How Allowing People to Own Ideas Helps Fuel Innovation. This lesson plan was originally offered in conjunction with an Adventure exhibit on patent models, but it can also be used effectively on its own, without a visit to the Adventure facility.

Another lesson plan created in partnership with the Boston Fed is Celebrating Economics through Local Business History. Prepared for middle school students by Paul Friedmann, teaching fellow, this plan has ten units and was taught for the first time in the spring of 2003 at the R.G. Shaw Middle School in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.

In addition, we recommend other lesson plans and student projects because they

• illustrate a theme of the Adventure,


• cover the same historical period as one of the Adventure case studies
  (Francis Cabot Lowell, Colonel Albert Pope, Ken Olsen), and/or


• provide an engaging approach to a related subject matter.
  
  

The following lessons are organized by their respective Adventure topic.

Entrepreneurship | Industrial Revolution | Labor | Standard of Living | Technology | Using Data

Entrepreneurship

What It Takes to Start a Business
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Education Place
Grades 7-8  

Students learn about the process and many different aspects of planning a new business.  Working in teams, they brainstorm ideas and develop detailed business plans to present to a panel of local entrepreneurs.
http://www.eduplace.com/activity/entre.html             


Two American Entrepreneurs: Madam C.J. Walker and J.C. Penney
National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans
Grades 5-12  

Among other things, this lesson plan helps students to identify the attributes of successful entrepreneurs, analyze the factors necessary for founding a profitable business, and observe the similarities and differences in personal backgrounds and business methods of two early 20th century commercial giants.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/walker/walker.htm

Industrial Revolution

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Industrial Light and Magic. Exploring the Technological Roots of the Industrial Revolution
New York Times Learning Network
Grades 6-12

Students investigate early mass production in various industries and then create presentation posters outlining how a typical 19th century factory, mill, or refinery worked.
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/author/karin-roberts/

Labor

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Lowell Workers and Producers Respond to Incentives
EconEdLink, National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)
Grades 8-11 Students learn how an embargo affects supply, demand, price, and quantity.
Teacher version: http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=562&type=educator


Understanding the Colonial Economy: Mexico/NAFTA
EconEdLink, National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)
Grades 9-12 (may be adapted for grades 6-8)
Students examine the role and effect of NAFTA in the Mexican and U.S. economies. Learning about this more recent event builds understanding of the role and importance of trade to colonial America, where the colonists produced what they could produce best relative to their available resources and could export at a competitive price.
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=567&type=educator

Standard of Living

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The Economics of Income: The Rich Nation Mystery
EconEdLink, National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)
Grades 6-12

This three-part lesson plan addresses the factors that contribute to a nation’s standard of living. Students make choices from pre-defined selections and then identify and explain critical factors that contribute to the standard of living within a nation.
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=NN113

Technology

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The Introduction and Diffusion of Household Technology
Lesson Plan 5, The First Measured Century, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
Grades 6-12

Students research and develop a matrix describing the introduction and spread in the United States from 1900 to 2000 of common household items such as electricity, refrigeration, and cell phones. Students use the matrix to construct a timeline of household technologies.
http://www.pbs.org/fmc/lessons/lesson5.htm

Using Data

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The History and Use of Sampling Methods
Lesson Plan 4, The First Measured Century, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
Grades 6-12

Students learn about sampling by tracing improvements in sampling procedures over the twentieth century. Students apply concepts through sampling exercises.
http://www.pbs.org/fmc/lessons/lesson4.htm


Using Data Collection to Create a Portrait of Your Town
Lesson Plan 7, The First Measured Century, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
Grades 6-12

Students are provided an outline of the topics and methods used by Robert and Helen Lynd, cultural anthropologists, in their path-breaking 1929 and 1937 studies of Muncie, Indiana (a town they called Middletown). Students then use research methods similar to the Lynds’ to develop a portrait of their own city or town over the last century. Students conduct interviews and images and collect information under each of the Lynds’ six major themes: getting a living, making a home, raising the young, using leisure time, practicing religion, and community life.
http://www.pbs.org/fmc/lessons/lesson7.htm


Economic Indicators
EconEdLink, National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)
Grades 9-12

What are the economic indicators that help forecast economic activity and business cycles? How do economists make their forecasts about the U.S. economy?
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=EM131


Centuries of Economic Growth — From Feathers to Robotics
Economics International, National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)
Grades 9-12

Students read scenarios about the production of Bibles over five historical time periods. Students create skits and develop a retrieval chart that is used to analyze factors affecting economic growth.
http://www.ncee.net/ei/lessons/lesson6


Gross Domestic Pizza, Economics International
National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)
Grades 6-9

This lesson explores how gross domestic product (GDP) is determined. Students create and compare GDP pie charts for the countries of Pepperonia and Anchovia.
http://www.ncee.net/ei/lessons/lesson3

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