• Who is involved?
All homeroom teachers, subject specialists, and leadership take part in collaborative planning to co-construct the unit and ensure alignment with IB and local requirements.

• Top down or bottom up?
It’s co-constructed. I guide the process and ensure alignment and consistency, but teachers lead the design through collaborative discussions and reflections.

Concepts

Function: Students inquire into the roles of producers, distributors, and consumers and how each contributes to the system. They explore how businesses function within economic systems and how tasks are divided and organized for efficiency.

Connection: Learners examine how decisions in one part of a system (e.g., rising costs, supply delays) can affect others, helping them understand interdependence between economic participants.

Skills

Research Skills: Learners develop questions related to the journey of a product, conduct interviews with local business owners, and organize findings using charts or visuals.

Thinking Skills: They analyze patterns in economic activity, categorize business types, and evaluate how decision-making influences outcomes in trade and organization.

Communication Skills: Students present their inquiries through infographics, presentations, and debates, learning to express opinions clearly with evidence.

Content

The unit covers how economic systems operate, including supply chains, distribution networks, roles within businesses, and the flow of goods and services. Students learn key vocabulary (e.g., trade, demand, profit, investment) and explore how these systems are organized to meet community needs.

Contexts

Students simulate a classroom marketplace where they design products, create pricing models, and act as producers and consumers. They analyze the operations of a local business (through visits or interviews) and trace a common product’s full journey from origin to point of sale. Reflection activities help them connect economic decisions to real-world consequences.

Review and Amend:

• Is this balance clear to all stakeholders?
Yes—teachers refer to the unit planner, students engage with learning goals and concepts through visible documentation and reflection, and families see the application of learning through projects and student action.

• How does the curriculum map illustrate how learning is to be demonstrated?
Through summative tasks like presentations and simulations, formative checkpoints, and student-led action. Learning is demonstrated through both conceptual understanding and the transfer of skills to authentic situations.