A.P. Macroeconomics Syllabus
Mr. Lerch, Spring 2017
University High School, Room LL6
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: piazza.com/tusd1.org/spring2017/apmac/home
Calendar: https://1drv.ms/w/s!AkUEUxzCPQ6YgpsetD-b1m3ibEKhKA
Twitter Feed: @jlerchclass
Welcome!
Advanced Placement (AP) Macroeconomics is a one-semester college-level course that focuses on
economic principles and their application to the economic system as a whole. Course content includes
an introduction to basic economic principles followed by an in-depth look at major macroeconomic
goals and performance indicators, the financial sector, monetary and fiscal policy, international trade,
and currency markets. The course requires students to demonstrate their understanding of economic
principles in both written and graphical form. The course is aligned with the College Board’s standards
and prepares students to take the AP exam.
You can expect to acquire economic-related knowledge and skills if you honor all course policies, attend
classes regularly, complete all assigned work in good faith and on time, and meet all other course
expectations of you as a student. By the end of this course you should be able to:
 Apply economic reasoning to consumer choices as well as to selected contemporary economic
problems.
 Understand how households (demand) and businesses (supply) interact in various market
structures to determine price and quantity of goods and services produced and consumed.
 Evaluate the intent and outcomes of government stabilization policies designed to correct
macroeconomic problems.
 Recognize and identify situations leading to market failure.
 Use economic problem solving skills to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the increasing
globalization of the world economy.
Materials
•
Textbook: Mankiw, N. Gregory. Principles of Economics. Mason, Ohio: Cengage, 2011 (6th Edition)
•
Ross, Clark, and Sally Meek. "AP® Macroeconomics: Challenging Concepts." EdX. Davidson
College, 01 July 2015. Web. 28 June 2016.
•
Composition Notebook (preferably with pages sewn in)
•
Loose Leaf Paper
•
Pencil/Pen
•
Glue/Rubber Cement/Tape
•
Consider purchasing (or borrowing from the public library) AP Macroeconomcs supplementary
materials such as flashcards, test-prep books, laminated study guides, etc.
Attendance
If you should happen to miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and see to it that
missed work is completed in a timely manner. The class website (URL listed above) will also prove to be
invaluable in catching up after an absence.
Class Website
This term we will be using Piazza for class discussion. The system is highly catered to getting you help
fast and efficiently from classmates, the TA, and myself. Rather than emailing questions to the
teaching staff, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza. If you have any problems or feedback
for the developers, email [email protected]. Find our class page at:
https://piazza.com/tusd1.org/spring2017/apmac/home
Notebooks
It is strongly recommended that you keep all warm-up activities, notes, handouts, and assessments in a
notebook that you bring to class each day. An organized notebook will serve as your most useful study
guide for the final exam at the end of the semester and the AP exam in May. You should use the Cornell
Notes method of taking notes.
Assessments and Course Outline
Assessments will typically be scored as follows. Rubric scores will convert to a letter grade according to
the table below.
Score
Letter Grade
Conversion
90-100
A
80-89
B
70-79
C
60-69
D
Less than 60
F
Students will have multiple attempts to demonstrate mastery of the course standards. Most
assessments (the final exam is excluded) may be redone (possibly in a different format and at my
discretion) or revised and resubmitted according to teacher instructions for full credit.
Student work will also be accepted past the stated due date for full credit provided it is submitted
within 5 school days of the original due date and students seek permission for extra time before the
original due date. In extraordinary circumstances student work may be submitted beyond the five
days with advance permission from the instructor. If a student does not submit an assessment the
assignment score will be recorded as an N in the gradebook for “no evidence of proficiency.” An N
will be calculated as a zero in the gradebook. Your AP score will have no influence on your course
grade.
Performance on the end-of-unit summative assessments may have a greater influence on a
student’s grade as these scores may be used to replace a student’s lowest score in a given category
for that unit. For example, if a student earned a score of 82 on an Essential Skills assessment early
in a unit and then scored a 90 in that same category on the end-of-unit assessment, the 82 may be
excluded to allow the student to benefit from demonstrating growth over time. Scores of N will not
be replaced as an N indicates the student never submitted the original assessment and, therefore,
did not provide initial evidence of their skill level.
In addition to a course grade, students will earn a score for Personal Responsibility. The score for
Personal Responsibility will not directly impact a student’s course grade, but will serve as an
indicator of a student’s timeliness, participation, productivity, and leadership related to this class.
Each student’s course grade will be based on performance in the areas identified below.
Assessment Area
% of
Course
Grade
Concepts Addressed
Basic Economic
Concepts
10%
scarcity, incentives, economic systems, opportunity cost,
absolute advantage, comparative advantage, supply and
demand
Measuring Economic
Performance
10%
real v. nominal figures, GDP, inflation, unemployment
The National Economy
25%
Economic Growth and
the Open Economy
10%
Essential Skills
25%
Final Exam
20%
national income and price determination (aggregate supply
and aggregate demand), money and the financial sector,
stabilization policies, competing economic philosophies
long-term economic growth, balance of payments accounts,
international trade, exchange rates and foreign currency
markets
interpreting & producing economic charts, graphs, and tables;
research skills; literacy skills
The final exam will be composed of items assessing mastery of
each of the other five areas.
Course Outline
Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts (Chapters 1-4)
•
Concepts: scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, absolute advantage, comparative advantage,
specialization, trade, demand, supply, market equilibrium, business cycle
•
Graphs: Production Possibilities Curve, Product Market (Supply & Demand) Graph
Unit 2: Measuring Economic Performance (Chapters 23, 24 and 28)
•
Concepts: circular flow, gross domestic product (GDP), calculating GDP, consumer spending,
government expenditures, investment spending, net exports, real v. nominal figures, price
indices, inflation, deflation, winners & losers in inflation, unemployment
Unit 3: The National Economy, Part A: The Macroeconomic Model and Fiscal Policy (Chapters 26, 33, 34
part, 35)
•
Concepts: aggregate demand, multiplier, crowding-out, aggregate supply, short run v. long
run, sticky v. flexible wages and prices, real output, price level, actual v. full employment,
fiscal policy, government deficits and debt, inflation vs. unemployment
•
Graphs: Aggregate Supply/Aggregate Demand, Loanable Funds Market, Phillips Curve
Unit 4: The National Economy Part B: The Financial Sector and Monetary Policy (Chapters 27, 29, 30, 34
part)
•
Concepts: money, stocks, bonds, time value of money, money supply, banks and the creation
of money, monetary policy, money demand, equilibrium interest rate, quantity theory of
money, demand-pull v. cost-push inflation, competing economic theories, rational
expectations, monetarism
•
Graphs: Money Market
Unit 5: Economic Growth and the Open Economy (Chapters 25, 31, 32)
•
•
Concepts: economic growth, human capital, physical capital, balance of trade, current account,
financial account, exchange rate, fixed v. floating exchange rate regimes, currency
appreciation and depreciation, imports, exports, capital flow
Graphs: Foreign Exchange Markets
Tips for Success
Read the relevant sections of
your textbook and complete
the Padlet lesson before the
class period on that topic.
Visit Piazza regularly and ask
questions!
Set aside 30 minutes most days of
the week for reading and/or
reviewing.
Form study groups with
other AP Micro students.
Take careful, organized notes;
revise to improve understanding.
Ask questions and
contribute to class
discussions.
Student & Parent/Guardian Signature Sheet – AP Macroeconomics
Student
Please sign below and return this document to class to indicate that you have read and understood the
syllabus – including the information about plagiarism.
___________________________________________ _________________________________
Print Full Name
Signature
Parent/Guardian
Please sign below to indicate that you have read and understood the syllabus – including the
information about plagiarism.
________________________________________
Parent/Guardian signature
What kind of computer access does your student have at home? (Consistent, daily access; intermittent
access, no access, etc.)
______________________________________________________________________________
Is there any information you feel is important for me to know about your student (e.g. special living or
family situations, recent emotional events, prior concerns with behavior, writing, or reading,
etc.)? Continue on the back if more space is needed.