Indiana Social Studies GE.1.5
The Standard
Critique the trade-off among economic growth, national security, efficiency, and personal freedom.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students weigh how a policy could help one economic goal while making another harder to reach. They consider growth, national security, efficient use of resources, and people's choices. They recommend a policy and explain who benefits and who bears the costs.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how requiring U.S.-made chips in phones might support domestic production and a secure supply, but raise costs and limit choice. They use those effects to defend a recommendation and acknowledge a drawback.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat more domestic jobs as proof that the whole economy will grow. They may confuse a higher price with less personal freedom, rather than looking at limits on choice. Some assume a domestic supply cannot be disrupted.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Congress proposes requiring all phone makers to use U.S.-made chips. Name one likely effect on each of the four goals, then recommend for or against the rule and explain one trade-off.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups four labeled mats and cards showing chip jobs, factory costs, supply risks, and buyer choice; have them sort the cards and defend overlaps.
Ask: Should Congress require U.S.-made chips in phones? Write a claim, two benefits, and one cost tied to different goals.
Play policy showdown with cards for chip tariffs, factory grants, and import bans; pairs pick a winner and name its biggest cost.
Compare prices and country-of-origin labels on two packs of masks, then predict how a domestic-only rule would affect emergency supplies and choice.
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Printable GE.1.5 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- GE.8.2
Compare and contrast the arguments for and against free trade.
- GE.2.3
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various economic systems.
- 7.E.1
Evaluate the benefits and opportunity costs of voluntary trade and specialization on the standards of living in Africa, Asia, and the Southwest Pacific.
- GE.4.6
Evaluate the effects of trade agreements among nations and barriers to trade.
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