Oklahoma Social Studies E.C.5

E.C.5 is a cluster heading. These are the individual standards under it.

• E.C.5.1

  Explain the emergence of money as a solution to the limitations of barter and describe its evolution from commodity money to modern monetary systems.

• E.C.5.2

  Explain how individuals, businesses, and the overall economy benefits from the various uses of money (e.g., trading, borrowing, investing, and diversifying) ver...

• E.C.5.3

  Identify the characteristics (e.g., divisibility, durability, acceptability, scarcity, portability) and functions (e.g., store of value, unit of account, and me...

• E.C.5.4

  Define inflation as a sustained increase in the general price level and explain its relationship to changes in the money supply, aggregate demand, and aggregate...

01

What Students Need to Do

Explain why barter can stall and how money changed from commodities to cash and bank balances. Describe what makes money useful as payment, a price measure, and a way to store value. Compare saving with trading, borrowing, investing, and spreading investments across assets.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Calculate the price change for a fixed basket and distinguish inflation, deflation, hyperinflation, and stagflation. Explain how changes in the money supply, demand, or production affect prices, households, businesses, and governments. Explain when someone might save, borrow, invest, or spread risk across investments.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may think one price increase is inflation, or that slower inflation means prices are falling. They may assume money must be physical and that increasing the money supply always raises prices immediately. They often treat saving and investing as identical.

04

How to Assess It

Exit ticket: A fixed basket rises from $50 to $55 while bank lending grows. Calculate the inflation rate, name another possible cause, and explain one effect on a saver.

1. 01

   Hand out goods cards for a two-minute barter round, then repeat with paper money tokens and tally completed trades.

2. 02

   Compare a bank lending slowdown with a crop failure: Which changes spending, which changes production, and what might happen to prices?

3. 03

   Play four-corner scenario sort with falling prices, rapid price jumps, rising prices with high unemployment, and steady price rises.

4. 04

   Use two months of BLS food and shelter price data to calculate each percent change, then discuss effects on renters and restaurants.

• USH.C.4.2.D

  Examine the role of monetary policy and the expansion of credit in the 1920’s including the creation and actions of the Federal Reserve System and their relatio...

• USG.C.7.1.D

  Examine how the government can influence the stability and growth of the economy through fiscal and monetary policy.