History · Economics
SEL activities for Econ Alive! The Power to Choose
18 RoseThread Connect activities matched to the chapters of Econ Alive! The Power to Choose (TCI). Each one teaches the chapter's content and builds one Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skill in about 20 minutes.
We look only at each book's table of contents (chapter titles and topics) to suggest activities that fit the flow of your course. We don't use or reproduce any textbook content, and your edition's chapter order may differ slightly. RoseThread Connect is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by these publishers.
Chapter 1: An Economic Way of Thinking
- Thinking Like an Economist Self-awareness · EconomicsStudents list the choices they already make with limited time and money and name the economist identity they bring into class.
- Why Incentives Work Self-management · EconomicsComparing monetary and nonmonetary incentives and discovering which motivators actually move students toward their own goals.
Chapter 2: Economic Decision Making
- Thinking Like an Economist Self-awareness · EconomicsStudents list the choices they already make with limited time and money and name the economist identity they bring into class.
- The Cost of Every Choice Responsible decision-making · EconomicsCalculating opportunity cost and marginal benefit, then using the same reasoning to weigh one real decision about how to spend an afternoon.
Chapter 3: Economic Systems
- Markets and Freedom Responsible decision-making · EconomicsReading Adam Smith alongside economists who stress the limits of markets and practicing how to summarize a view fairly before responding to it.
Chapter 4: Gains from Trade
- Trade Across Borders Social awareness · EconomicsComparing gains from trade with the concerns of workers, businesses, and farmers about free trade, and listening for the interests behind each view.
- Gratitude for the Hands Behind Our Goods Relationship skills · EconomicsStudents trace one everyday product back through the workers who made it and write thank you notes to people whose work sustains them.
Chapter 5: Demand and Supply
- Supply, Demand, and Dates Self-management · EconomicsCharting how a heat wave affects the supply and price of Coachella Valley dates and noticing how students' own stress rises and falls with the demands on their time.
Chapter 6: Markets, Equilibrium, and Prices
- Supply, Demand, and Dates Self-management · EconomicsCharting how a heat wave affects the supply and price of Coachella Valley dates and noticing how students' own stress rises and falls with the demands on their time.
- When Prices Are Capped Responsible decision-making · EconomicsExamining the intended and unintended effects of price controls such as rent control through the views of several economists, and pausing to separate feelings from evidence.
Chapter 7: Market Structures and Market Failures
- Caring for What We Share Social awareness · EconomicsExamining how property rights and stewardship shape the use of scarce desert water and considering how shared spaces are cared for when no one owns them.
- Competition and Quality Relationship skills · EconomicsAnalyzing how competition affects price and quality and distinguishing healthy competition from rivalry that damages relationships.
Chapter 8: Money, Banking, Saving, and Investing
- The Fed and Your Wallet Self-awareness · EconomicsExplaining how the Federal Reserve influences interest rates and applying the idea of delayed reward to personal saving.
Chapter 9: Entrepreneurs and Business Organizations
- Profit and the Entrepreneur Self-management · EconomicsStudying the role of profit and risk for entrepreneurs, including family businesses in the valley, and sketching one small creative venture.
Chapter 10: Human Capital and the Labor Market
- Why Unions Formed Relationship skills · EconomicsStudying why workers formed unions, including the United Farm Workers in the Coachella Valley, alongside the concerns of employers, and practicing collective problem-solving.
- Why Jobs Pay Differently Self-awareness · EconomicsUsing supply, demand, and productivity to explain differences in wages and mapping the skills students want to grow next.
- Work in a Changing Economy Self-management · EconomicsExploring how automation and global competition change jobs and naming coping strategies for an uncertain future.
Chapter 11: Government and the Economy
- Caring for What We Share Social awareness · EconomicsExamining how property rights and stewardship shape the use of scarce desert water and considering how shared spaces are cared for when no one owns them.
- What Government Does in Markets Responsible decision-making · EconomicsWeighing arguments for and against government roles in markets from several economic perspectives and practicing a fair summary of a view one does not hold.
Chapter 12: Taxes and Taxation
- Taxes, Spending, and Choices Social awareness · EconomicsExamining the aims of fiscal policy and modeling a budget in which different community members' needs compete for limited funds.
Chapter 13: Measuring the Economy
- Reading the Economy's Pulse Self-awareness · EconomicsCalculating unemployment and inflation rates and comparing nominal with real data, then checking in on students' own emotional indicators.
Chapter 14: Fiscal and Monetary Policy
- Taxes, Spending, and Choices Social awareness · EconomicsExamining the aims of fiscal policy and modeling a budget in which different community members' needs compete for limited funds.
- The Fed and Your Wallet Self-awareness · EconomicsExplaining how the Federal Reserve influences interest rates and applying the idea of delayed reward to personal saving.
Chapter 15: The United States and the Global Economy
- Work in a Changing Economy Self-management · EconomicsExploring how automation and global competition change jobs and naming coping strategies for an uncertain future.
- Trade Across Borders Social awareness · EconomicsComparing gains from trade with the concerns of workers, businesses, and farmers about free trade, and listening for the interests behind each view.
Chapter 16: The Costs and Benefits of Globalization
- Work in a Changing Economy Self-management · EconomicsExploring how automation and global competition change jobs and naming coping strategies for an uncertain future.
- Trade Across Borders Social awareness · EconomicsComparing gains from trade with the concerns of workers, businesses, and farmers about free trade, and listening for the interests behind each view.
- Gratitude for the Hands Behind Our Goods Relationship skills · EconomicsStudents trace one everyday product back through the workers who made it and write thank you notes to people whose work sustains them.
RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.