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Elasticity - Lesson Plan: 2 x 1 hour lessons
A series of 'off the shelf' lesson plans and resources for use in the classroom. These lessons deal with elasticity. They are relevant to the following specifications:
- AQA: AS Module 1, 10.2
- Edexcel: AS Unit 1
- OCR: AS Unit 2881, 5.12
Aim:
This is a concept that always proves difficult to grasp for many students. The intention of these lessons is to look at the theoretical background and then move on to some exercises designed to test basic understanding of the formulas and then an opportunity to use those formulas through Biz/ed's Virtual Learning Arcade.
Finally, an Activity based around the pricing of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road poses questions for students to think about and to use their understanding of the concept. The answers will require students to do both calculations and to place the decision-making process into context.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the lessons, students should:
- Understand the meaning of the term 'elasticity' in its widest sense
- Understand the main elasticity concepts - price, income and cross elasticity and elasticity of supply
- Be able to manipulate the formulas with confidence
- Be able to apply knowledge of the above to a practical example
Resources:
Lesson Structure:
Lesson 1
- The Demand and Supply Activity made use of Flash diagrams through which students could move sliders up and down to assess the impact of price changes. Diagrams 2 and 3 showed two demand curves with different slopes. This might be a useful place to start the lesson - if there is access to a projector linked to a PC or an Interactive White Board (IWB), this can be used to demonstrate to the whole group.
- Choosing an initial price on diagram 2 - say 8, gives a level of demand of 34. Changing the price to 6 leads to a rise in demand to 39. Students can be asked to calculate the percentage change this represents (25%). (They may need to be given the formula!!) Then get them to calculate the increase in the quantity (rounded up - 12%). If they then compare this to a similar exercise in diagram 3, a fall in price from 8 - 6 again leads this time to a rise in demand of 70%! If you do not have access to the Flash diagrams a written illustration on a white/chalk board will suffice.
- At this stage, the idea of proportionate changes has been introduced. The students can be asked what this might mean or what relevance this might have.
- Use the PowerPoint Presentation to demonstrate the key principles. Stop at regular intervals to engage in discussion, as questions involve students in the learning - get them to reflect on a regular basis. There are a lot of slides in the Presentation - they do not have to be used all at once or during the same lesson.
Breaks can be taken to work on the Using Formulas Activity or the Virtual Learning Arcade as a means of reinforcing the initial message. The first questions in the Activity can be done after slide 10, for example, or initial work on the Virtual Learning Arcade can be carried out at this time.
- Continue through the remainder of the Presentation and then complete the rest of the Using Formulas Activity.
- Set aside some time to reflect on the information covered. The timings for the above structure will depend on the approach adopted and has been left deliberately 'flexible'.
Lesson 2
- Begin with a review of the previous lesson. Selecting students to explain key issues on the board to their colleagues is one way of doing this; another approach would be to get students to indulge in some peer coaching. Students can work in groups of two or three (no more than this). One student spends a short time summarising the issues covered in the last lesson to the other/s. The student can use diagrams, written formats or mind maps - whatever suits the purpose. The student/s on the receiving end have to write down any issues that they do not feel have been explained in a very clear way and the 'teacher student' must then re-explain!
- Moving on to the Toll Roads Activity, students can spend some time familiarising themselves with the Birmingham Northern Relief Road - a list of useful links is provided above.
- Go over the Activity with the students - discuss some of the issues and implications, steering the discussion to the issue of elasticity. It may be useful before setting the Activity to go through the 'mark scheme' with them as a guide to how to structure their answers. Again, timing of the lesson needs to be flexible according to the approach adopted. The initial peer coaching session should take 10-15 minutes.
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