Using Experiments with Economic Principles: Microeconomics, 2nd Edition for High School Courses


We have had a lot of interest from secondary school educators, and believe that the book should work well in this setting with some modifications. The experiments are very accessible (and fun!) for students of all levels, and so they should work just fine without any modifications (perhaps, depending on the skill of your class, you may want to limit the scope of the experiments by removing a few of the optional sessions). The lab report, discussion, and homework sections should also be directly accessible to good students (say, AP students), and even less well prepared students should be able to grasp this material sufficiently to have a high quality learning experience. In the case of less well prepared students, the instructor may want to deliver some carefully prepared lectures with a judicious choice of content.

Below are some suggested chapters for a high school course. (See the annotated table of contents for additional descriptions of the experiments.)


Part I: Competitive Markets


Once you have the first two experiments completed, you should freely choose from among any of the following:


Part II: Market Intervention and Public Policy


Part III: Imperfect Markets


Part IV: Firms and Technology


Part IV: Information, Auctions, and Bargaining


Appendix: Further Economic Principles


Copyright (c) 1999, Theodore Bergstrom and John H. Miller, All Rights Reserved
John H. Miller, miller@zia.hss.cmu .edu.