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I. Introduction
II. Objectives
III. Preparing the Students
IV. Presentation
V. Enrichment and Assessment Activities
VI. Additional Resources
VII. Relevant National Learning Standards
VIII. Planning a Videoconference?
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"You mean a hot dog only cost 10-cents in 1929,
and a World Series ticket was just $5.50 in 1940?"
The varying worth of money is the basis of this lesson
for teaching students how baseball history reflects
American economics since the early 20th century. Hands-on
math applications and factors of trade and industry
- such as labor, transportation, materials, energy and
the concept of supply and demand - are illustrated through
primary source documents from baseball's olden days
and modern age to help students analyze the ever-changing
value of a dollar.
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A. Examine historical data from various sources, including
museum and library collections, artifacts, primary source
documents, oral testimonies and Web sites.
B. Analyze data and interpret variables to compare and
contrast their impact on economic trends, consumer prices,
standard of living and the value of American currency
across different eras.
C. Understand, through dialogue and practical application,
how the evolution of baseball coincides with historic
events that impact buying power, including the allocation
of scarce resources and the four key pricing elements
of material, energy, labor and transportation.
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A. Background
Because of baseball's enduring popularity since the
early 20th century, the game often reflects trends of
trade and industry in American society. Consumer prices
and the interconnected factors that influence them -
materials, energy, labor and transportation - are typically
represented in the rising cost of attending a baseball
game. Player salaries, ticket prices and concessions
are interrelated in their collective impact on the wealth
of the game and its many associated industries (e.g.
trading cards, equipment, clothing, etc.). The law of
supply and demand ultimately determines the economic
ebb and flow of baseball and the value placed upon it
by contemporary culture.
B. Vocabulary
Baby Boomer
Cause and Effect
Concession
Consumer
Currency
Depression
Economics
Energy
Era
Factory
Industry
Inflation
Information Age
Korean War
Labor
Materials
Product
Rationing
Resources
Scarcity
Space Age
Supply and Demand
Technology
Trade
Transportation
Trend
Vendor
World War II
C. Pre-Program Activities
1) Acquaint students with different scenarios to explain
the concept of supply and demand, such as the Homestead
Act, the Stock Market, oil embargos or the scarcity
of goods during the Great Depression and the war years.
The examples, which could be simple or complex, do not
necessarily need to be baseball related. These illustrations
could be in the form of story problems integrating different
areas of the curriculum.
2) Choose an existing product that, in its production,
demonstrates the economic factors of material, energy,
labor and transportation - as well as the causes and
effects related to the pricing of that product.
3) Ask students to research, compare and contrast the
cost of a gallon of milk, a postage stamp, a loaf of
bread and a movie ticket as they were on the student's
birth date and a family member's birth date.
4) Assign students one of the following eras to research:
1929-1939 (The Depression); 1940-1959 (The War Years
and Baby Boomers); 1960-1979 (The Space Age); 1980-1999
(The Information Age); and 2000 to the present (Today).
As individuals or in groups, have them develop a presentation
on major economic or historical events of that era.
The presentation could be in the form of a PowerPoint
presentation, a simulated newspaper, a poster project
or a written report.
5) Using the Hall of Fame's Web site at baseballhalloffame.org,
ask students to sort and classify primary source documents
to find artifacts related to an assigned era of study
(see above). Students should be responsible for comparing,
contrasting and gathering documents or data related
to their era of study.
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If you are participating in a school visit or videoconference
please do not review this section with your students.
It will be taught as part of the presentation.
A. Opening
1) Display groups of pennies to visually compare the
purchase price of a baseball across different eras.
For example, in 1929 a baseball cost as little as 11
cents.
2) Ask students why they think the price of a baseball
has risen over time. Use their answers to discuss the
basic principle of economics and show how today's lesson
illustrates this concept using actual baseball artifacts.
B. Lesson
1) Introduce the example of a baseball factory that
produces its product based upon supply and demand, and
determines pricing based upon the cost of materials,
energy, labor and transportation. INSTRUCTOR NOTE: Please
see Planning a Videoconference section for Primary source
documents. Be prepared to explain the operation of the
factory, including factors of material, energy, labor
and transportation. Develop inquiring questions to elicit
how much students understand the concept of supply and
demand.
2) Ask students to an example of a newspaper headline
of a major news event from each of the five pre-assigned
eras. Engage students in an interactive dialogue about
important social or economic events that may have occurred
in that era as reflected by the newspaper articles,
or other historical records.
3) Have them research, record and tally a sum cost for
the following items related to their assigned era: a
player's contract; a World Series ticket; a souvenir
game program; a hot dog; a bag of peanuts; and a soft
drink. To expedite gathering this data, assign research
responsibilities to each student. INSTRUCTOR NOTE: Give
the students approximately four minutes for this activity
with the expectation that slightly more time may be
necessary.
4) Ask the press reporter from each group to present
the findings. As the data is presented by the groups,
the press reporters complete their respective Economic
Scorecards showing costs compiled for each era. As a
class, draw conclusions about economic trends by comparing
and contrasting the findings of each group.
5) Hold up a dollar bill, first fully unfolded then
gradually fold to a smaller size, to illustrate its
steadily diminishing value in relation to the goods
and commodities discussed in this lesson.
C. Conclusion
1) To provide additional context, introduce the cost
of other items not researched by the groups, such as
an average annual wage and an automobile. Discuss the
cost of these items according to the norms for that
time period. Explain how the price of these commodities
has increased dramatically across the eras due to inflation
and other economic factors. INSTRUCTOR NOTE: The intent
of this discussion is to compare and contrast standards
of living in each of the eras discussed.
2) Use an assortment of baseball cards to relate modern-day
players with the concept of value based upon supply
and demand. Introduce the Honus
Wagner T-206 baseball card from 1909 as an example
of increasing worth due to scarcity of product, personal
value, etc. INSTRUCTOR NOTE: Show at least two modern-day
cards of players with whom students may be familiar
- then introduce the Honus Wagner card. Find a copy
of the card and background information on its history
at baseballhalloffame.org.
3) Returning to the original example of a baseball as
a product, rotate a ball to show the signature of a
famous ballplayer on the reverse side. Explain how a
simple variable, such as an autograph, can dramatically
increase or decrease the value of a product.
If you are participating in a school visit or videoconference
please do not review this section with your students.
It will be taught as part of the presentation.
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A. If a middle class family attended the World Series
during the era they were assigned to research, what
percentage of the family's weekly wage would be spent
on the tickets? If the family bought hot dogs and sodas
at that game, what is the total amount the family would
have spent? What percentage of the family's weekly wage
would that represent?
B. Apply the law of supply and demand to current event
situations, such as natural disasters or wars, which
might impact costs associated with materials, energy,
labor or transportation.
C. Students can create a proposal to produce a new product.
In the business plan, they should provide a production
budget that accounts for materials, energy, labor and
transportation.
D. From data gathered during this lesson, students should
create tables, graphs or pie charts to visually illustrate
what they have learned. Working in groups, students
should develop questions that can be answered by data
found in the graphs they created. Students could then
trade their graphs and questions with each other.
E. Ask students to examine the "Green
Light Letter" from President Franklin D. Roosevelt
to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw M. Landis urging the
continuation of baseball at the outset of World War
II. Discuss the economic implications and benefits of
Roosevelt's recommendation. Use this artifact (found
at baseballhalloffame.org) as a writing or discussion
prompt for measuring students' ability to interpret
a primary source document with an understanding of economic
and historical impact.
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A. Literature
Jennison, Christopher. Baseball Math: Grandslam Activities
and Projects for Grades 4-8. GoodYearBooks, 1995.
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Baseball
As America. National Geographic Books, 2002.
B. Web Links
econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lessons=EM75
Baseball Economics 101
ABC News article
"Bonds Record Ball Won't be Worth Millions"
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A. Economics
1) Understand scarcity is the condition of not being
able to have all of the goods and services that one
wants. It exists because human wants for goods and services
exceed the quantity of goods and services that can be
produced using all available resources.
2) Understand the choices people make have both present
and future consequences.
3) Understand scarcity requires the use of some distribution
method, whether the method is selected explicitly or
not.
4) Can describe the distribution methods used to allocate
a variety of goods and services, such as, parking spaces,
prison paroles, access to a new drug treatment for cancer,
seats on a bus, milk and tickets to a popular art exhibits.
Then explain why a distribution method is necessary.
5) Understand people in all economies must address three
questions: What goods and services will be produced?
How will these goods and services be produced? Who will
consume them?
6) Can answer the three economic questions while producing
a simple classroom product, such as your bracelets,
greeting cards or decorations for a school dance.
7) Can list the resources used to produce some item
and identify other items that could have been made from
these resources.
8) Understand incentives can be monetary or non-monetary.
9) Understand when people buy something, they value
it more than it costs them; when people sell something,
they value it less than the payment they receive.
10) Understand market prices are determined through
the buying and selling decisions made by buyers and
sellers.
11) Can play a market game in which buyers and sellers
determine the market price for a common product, for
example: wheat, apples, baseballs.
12) Understand relative prices refer to the price of
one good or service compared to the prices of other
goods and services. Relative prices are the basic measures
of the relative scarcity of products when prices are
set by market forces (supply and demand).
13) Can identify examples of products for which the
price fell because sellers were unable to sell all they
had produced; identify examples of other products for
which the price rose because consumers wanted to buy
more than producers were producing.
14) Understand an increase in the price of a good or
service encourages people to look for substitutes, causing
the quantity demanded to decrease, and vice versa. This
relationship between price and quantity demanded, known
as the law of demand, exists as long as other factors
influencing demand do not change.
15) Understand increase in the price of a good or service
enables producers to cover higher per-unit costs, causing
the quantity supplied to increase and vice versa. This
relationship between price and quantity supplied is
normally true as long as other factors influencing costs
of production and supply do not change.
16) Understand markets are interrelated; changes in
the price of one good or service can lead to changes
in prices of many other goods and services.
17) Understand scarce goods and services are allocated
in a market economy through the influence of prices
on production and consumption decisions.
18) Understand competition among buyers of a product
results in higher product prices.
19) Understand the level of competition in a market
is influenced by the number of buyers and sellers.
20) Understand the basic money supply in the United
States consists of currency, coins and checking account
deposits.
21) Understand employers are willing to pay wages and
salaries to workers because they expect to be able to
sell the goods and services that those workers produce
at prices high enough to cover the wages and salaries
and all other costs of production.
22) Understand to earn income people sell productive
resources. These include their labor, capital, natural
resources and entrepreneurial talents.
23) Can survey several adults regarding their sources
of income, and conclude that the largest portion of
personal income for most people comes from wages and
salaries.
24) Understands a wage or salary is the price of labor;
it usually is determined by the supply of and demand
for labor.
25) Understand entrepreneurs and other sellers earn
profits when buyers purchase the product they sell at
prices high enough to cover the costs of production.
26) Understand entrepreneurs and other sellers incur
losses when buyers do not purchase the products they
sell at prices high enough to cover costs of production.
27) Understand standards of living increase as the productivity
of labor improves.
28) Understand technological change is an advance in
knowledge leading to new and improved goods and services
and better ways of producing them.
29) Understand increases in productivity result from
advances in technology and other sources.
30) Understand Inflation reduces the value of money.
31) Can interview someone aged 50-59 years old about
grocery prices. Compare the groceries that could be
purchased for $10 in 1967 with those that can be purchased
for $10 today.
32) Understands when people's incomes increase more
slowly than the inflation rate, their purchasing power
declines.
33) Can compare the prices of a market basket of goods
in 1980 with similar prices today. Explain how inflation
reduces purchasing power for people whose income is
fixed or increasing slower than the rate of inflation.
B. Mathematics
1) Select, create, and use appropriate graphical representations
of data, including histograms, box plots and scatterplots.
2) Discuss and understand the correspondence between
data sets and their graphical
representations, especially histograms, stem-and-leaf
plots, box plots and scatterplots.
3) Use observations about differences between two or
more samples to make conjectures about the populations
from which the samples were taken.
4) Use conjectures to formulate new questions and plan
new studies to answer them.
5) Solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other
contexts.
6) Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies
to solve problems.
7) Make and investigate mathematical conjectures.
8) Understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and
build on one another to produce a coherent whole.
9) Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside
of mathematics.
C. Language Arts
1) Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend,
interpret, evaluate and appreciate texts. They draw
on their prior experience, their interactions with other
readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning
and of other texts, their word identification strategies
and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter
correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
2) Students employ a wide range of strategies as they
write and use different writing process elements appropriately
to communicate with different audiences for a variety
of purposes.
3) Students conduct research on issues and interests
by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems.
They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety
of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts,
people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that
suit their purpose and audience.
4) Students use a variety of technological and information
resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks,
video) to gather and synthesize information and to create
and communicate knowledge.
5) Students use spoken, written, and visual language
to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning,
enjoyment, persuasion and the exchange of information).
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A. Videoconference
Checklist (PDF)
B. Materials:
Teachers please divide your class into five equal groups.
The names of each group, based on different time periods
in American History, are: The Great Depression, The
War Years, The Space Age, The Information Age, and The
Present. During the videoconference your students will
use these primary source documents to fill in their
economic scorecard. Please do not have your students
do this prior to the videoconference.
The
Great Depression (PDF)
The War
Years (PDF)
The Space
Age (PDF)
The
Information Age (PDF)
The Present
(PDF)
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Economics:
