Nov 24 2010
Lesson Plan: Costs of Production Presentation for Y1 IB Economics
Unit 2.3.1 Costs of Production: Team Presentation Activity
Learning Objectives:
- Distinguish between fixed and variable costs of production
- Understand how the law of diminishing returns affects the shape of a firm’s short-run total costs and short-run average costs.
- Understand the relationships between marginal cost and the average costs faced by a firm
- Distinguish between the short-run and the long-run and understand how economies of scale determines the shape of a firm’s long-run ATC curve.
- Evaluate the importance to a business firm of understanding its short-run and long-run costs of production.
Process: Work with a partner in the class to prepare a presentation on the theories behind and the relationships between a firm’s short-run and long-run costs of production. Pairs will create a shared Google Presentation (which should also be shared with Mr. Welker) and collaborate on creating a presentation demonstrating your understanding of the topics outlined below. The presentations that are created will be shared among group members, and edited in class and over the weekend.
The assignment: Each team is to make one Google Presentation on an assigned topic based on what they learn using the web-resources provided by Mr. Welker below. Presentations will be shared with Mr. Welker and presented during our first meeting next week.
Guidelines for presentation:
- Presentations must be at least 10 slides long, but no more than 15.
- Presentations must include definition, explanations, illustrations and examples (when possible) for the key concepts identified below
- Presentations must include graphs from the resources provided to illustrate concepts where necessary
- Presentation must use each group’s own words. Copying and pasting text from the resources provided is not permitted.
Shor-run – Key Concepts
- Short-run
- Total, average and marginal product
- Law of diminishing returns
- Short-run total costs
- Short-run marginal and average costs
Resources on Short-run Costs of Production:
- Course Companion pages 73-79
- Unit 2.3.1 Study Guide
- Wiki page – Economic Costs
- Calculating total costs – BizEd
- Wiki page – Short-run Production Relationships
- Wiki page – Short-run Production Costs
- WW Blog – Diminishing Returns and graphing short-run costs (Read and respond to the discussion questions as a table group)
- Biz-Ed PowerPoint on short-run costs (slides 1-28)
Long-run: Key Concepts
- Long-run
- Long-run Average Total Cost
- Economies of scale/Increasing returns to scale
- Minimum efficient scale
- Constant returns to scale
- Diseconomies of scale/Decreasing returns to scale
Resources on Long-run Costs of Production:
- Course Companion pages 79-83
- Unit 2.3.1 Study Guide
- Wiki page – Economic Costs
- Wiki page – Long-run Production Costs
- Biz-Ed PowerPoint on long-run costs (slides 29-57):
- WW Blog – Economies of scale and the long-run ATC (Read and respond to the discussion questions as a table group)
- Biz-Ed – Economies of scale in farming
- Biz-Ed – Economies of scale in fishing
Grading Presentation: Total – 40 marks
Area of assessment |
High marks (7-10) |
Medium marks (4-6) |
Low marks (1-3) |
Organization | Easy to read. Font size varies appropriately. Text is appropriate length. Presentation falls within the required length limits (10-15 slides) | Overall readability is difficult. Too much text. Too many different fonts. Presentation falls within the required length (10-15 slides) | Text is difficult to read. Too much text. Inappropriate fonts. Small font size. Presentation is either too short or too long. |
Graphs | All graphs are related to content. All graphs are appropriate size and good quality. Graphics are explained clearly and illustrate the concepts from the presentation | Some of the graphs are unrelated to content. Too many graphics on one page. Some of the graphics distract from the text. Graphs are explained, but explanations are incomplete or unclear | Most of the graphs are unrelated to content. Too many graphics on one page. Most of the graphs distract from the text. Explanations are incomplete and unclear |
Concepts | The economic concepts that were assigned have been completely and accurately incorporated into the presentation. Definitions, explanations, illustrations and examples fully reflect the team’s understanding of the concepts | The economic concepts assigned are all addressed in the presentation, but analysis is superficial and lacks original insight from the team members. | The economic concepts assigned are not all addressed in the presentation. One or more have been left out completely, and those that were addressed were explained or illustrated incorrectly. |