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Demand and Supply - Lesson Plan: 1 x 1 hour lesson

A series of 'off the shelf' lesson plans and resources for use in the classroom. This lesson deals with an introduction to demand and supply. It is relevant to the following specifications:

  • AQA: AS Module 1
  • Edexcel: AS Units 1
  • OCR: AS Units 2881

Aim:

Teaching this section is always tricky - we hope that the Activity we have designed will help students interact with demand and supply curves and begin to explore the purpose, benefits and limitations of economic modelling.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, students should understand the following:

  • The meaning of the term 'level of demand'
  • The relationship between demand and price
  • The elements of elasticity (without, as yet, using that particular term)
  • The relationship between supply and price
  • How to apply knowledge of models to real life examples

Resources:

N.B. To make full use of the Activity, your system should have Macromedia Flash Player 6 (or higher) installed - this can be obtained from the Macromedia Web site.

Lesson Structure:

  1. Use the PowerPoint presentation [127 KB] to introduce the principles of demand and supply.
  2. Introduce the Activity and explain the learning objectives. Briefly explain the process of the Activity - using a simple chalk/white board to demonstrate may be sufficient.
  3. The Activity takes students through step by step - some may need help to follow through the ideas and opportunities can be taken to stop the lesson to discuss the issues that arise.
  4. The questions are designed to encourage students to think carefully about the concepts they are dealing with - many students will need hints from the educator!
  5. The questions can either be written out in a formal style or just recorded as notes or thought pads.
  6. The questions on the 2003 summer heatwave are designed to get students to question the models. The fact that prices of ice creams in supermarkets did not increase as the theory would suggest is because supermarkets anticipated the demand and increased stocks. Whether the enterprising ice cream sellers in local areas with a mini-monopoly refrained form price increases is less certain!
  7. The issue of grain and the effects on the harvest provide a contrast - the opportunities to increase the supply of grain at short notice is not as practical. This can be used to begin to explore the way in which markets respond to changing conditions and also to explore the knock-on effects to other industries, thus highlighting the inter-dependency of different markets.