Indiana Social Studies GE.2.2
The Standard
Identify questions that must be answered by any economic system and how they are categorized by how they answer the basic economic questions.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify three decisions every economy makes: what to produce, how to produce it, and who gets it. They compare how custom, government direction, buyers and sellers, or a mix of these shape the answers.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a short scenario, students can point to who makes each decision. They can use those clues to identify traditional, command, market, or mixed features and explain their choice.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think “for whom” asks who does the work, rather than who gets the goods or services. They may call any economy with private stores a pure market economy, or mistake any government rule for a command economy.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A city orders electric buses, private firms choose how to build them, and students ride free. Identify the what, how, and for whom decisions, then classify the system.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups 12 paper tokens and buyer cards; assign government orders or customer bids, then compare their production and distribution choices.
Ask students: “If a town has one factory, who decides whether it makes buses or phones, and who gets the products?”
Have pairs sort four scenario cards into traditional, command, market, or mixed, then underline the clue showing who made each decision.
Use a cafeteria menu, prices, and free-lunch policy to trace who decides the meals, how they are made, and who gets them.
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Printable GE.2.2 Worksheet
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