In this unit you will introduce just a few basic principles. These are, however, foundational principles. It is therefore important that your students grasp them. For the most part, the concepts are intuitive; your students live with scarcity, and they understand what it is like to make choices and accept the sacrifices inherent in every decision. The challenge lies in attaching the language of economists to the concepts students already understand.

This unit also includes some elementary charting and graphing exercises. Two are relatively simple and provide students with a lot of guidance while a third, on intergenerational mobility, invites them to design their own visual tools for presenting statistical information.