18 weeks · Grades 6-12
Economics and Personal Finance
Budgets, scarcity, and tradeoffs taught with a treasury your student can actually drain.
A half-year economics track covering scarcity, opportunity cost, supply and demand, taxation, inflation, trade, and personal budgeting. Every concept is tested against a live national treasury, so a bad decision costs something and the lesson sticks.
What your student will be able to do
- Define scarcity, opportunity cost, and tradeoff with real examples
- Read and build a budget with income, expenses, and reserves
- Explain supply and demand and predict price movement
- Describe how taxation funds services and affects behavior
- Compare economic systems and identify their tradeoffs
Scope and sequence
| When | Focus | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-2 | Scarcity and choice | List ten wants, fund three, journal the tradeoff |
| Weeks 3-5 | Budgeting | Build a national budget and hold it steady for five in-game days |
| Weeks 6-8 | Supply and demand | Track one resource's price across a week and explain the swing |
| Weeks 9-11 | Taxation and public spending | Test three tax rates and chart the happiness impact |
| Weeks 12-14 | Trade and comparative advantage | Negotiate a trade deal that benefits both sides |
| Weeks 15-18 | Personal finance bridge | Apply the same budget skills to a personal monthly plan |
What you need
- • Budget worksheets
- • Calculator or spreadsheet
- • Free SFC Nations account
Unit studies in this track
Printables for this track
Questions parents ask
Does it include personal finance?
The last four weeks bridge national budgeting into personal budgeting, saving, and opportunity cost.
Is math required?
Basic arithmetic and percentages. Nothing beyond middle-school math.