Twelfth Grade · History · week 25

When markets shift: reading price shocks

Analyze real-world events as supply or demand shifts and predict price/quantity outcomes.

Now you can read the news. Every price headline is a shift story: a freeze hits Florida (orange supply left → price up, quantity down); a study praises olive oil (demand right → price up, quantity up); a chip factory opens (supply right → price down, quantity up). Two questions decode anything: WHICH curve moved, and WHICH WAY?

The tell: supply shifts move price and quantity in OPPOSITE directions; demand shifts move them the SAME direction. Both curves can move at once (a pandemic hit both) — then one of price or quantity is predictable and the other depends on which shift dominates. Say that honestly instead of guessing.

📋 For the grown-up teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Bring three real headlines; decode each with the two questions. Make it a ritual this week.
  • Teach the signature: opposite = supply, same = demand. Verify with quantity, not just price.
  • Do one double-shift honestly — modeling "this part is ambiguous" is a masterclass in intellectual honesty.
  • Let them stump you with a headline; reason aloud, including your uncertainty.
Talk about it:
  • Which moved — supply or demand — and what's your evidence?
  • Why does quantity data settle what price data can't?
  • Find a price change at the store this week: what's your shift story?

Mastery looks like: Given a fresh headline, they name the curve, direction, and both predictions — or correctly flag ambiguity.

Common stumbles: Reading every price rise as "greed"; forgetting to check quantity; forcing certainty on double shifts.

Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
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