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Job and Retirement Timeline
Through an interview, explore the life of an older person in your community who has worked and then retired. Begin by asking students what "retirement" means. Why do people retire? When does it happen? Ask students to think about someone they know who is retired. (Note: students may be paired with individuals at a local retirement home or senior center if necessary.)
As a class, brainstorm some questions you might want to ask a retired person. Some ideas for questions: What was your first job? What other jobs did you have? Which job did you like the best, and why? Which job paid the most? When did you start thinking about retirement? What did you do to prepare for retirement? Do you have any advice for younger generations on working and preparing for retirement?
Ask students to interview a retiree. After the interviews, help them put everything in chronological order. Show them an example of a timeline and then help them create a timeline from the life of the person that they interviewed. Teachers may contextualize this information with demographic data about U.S. workers from the PBS First Measured Century Web site.
Together, talk about the retiree's advice for younger generations. Compile a list that may be published in the school or community paper. Older students might compare this advice to the information shared on the Frontline My Retirement Dreams Web site.
Additional activity: have each students make a timeline of his own life so far. Then extend the timeline into the future by asking the student to make predictions about family, work, and retirement.
Playing the Market
Introduce students to stock market basics, calculate the amount of returns for investments as compared to savings accounts, and consider long term and short term investments.
Begin by asking students what kind of things they buy on a regular basis. Which brands do they prefer and why? Link this to the stock market by pointing out that basically, the stock market creates a "connection between companies that we buy from and the investments that we make." Pass out text of the PBS NewsHour interview with Tom Gardner, or listen to it online.
In the paragraph where Tom Gardner mentions compound growth there is a math problem. Stop reading and do the calculations: start with investing $50, and it grows an average of 10% a year. How much money will you have each year for 10 years? Compare this to the 3% yearly increase one is likely to get in a savings account. Create a table and then figure out the formula to find the amount of money you'll have after 50 years.
( Equation for 10% annual return: 50 (1.10)x where x stands for the number of years.
Equation for 3% annual return: 50(1.03)x
Explanation: each year you multiply the amount of money by the percent and add it back into the number, so multiplying by 1.10 or 1.03 does that addition step for you.)
Play a Virtual Stock Market at the PBS NOVA Web site. Use the "traditional trading" option to see how the price of a stock changes over a 4 month time period while you buy, sell, or hold onto your stocks. Find out what your growth was over the 4 months. Was it around 10%? Was it lower? Why do you think you got the results that you did?
Discuss & write: Your parent/guardian or friend of the family is investing in the stock market. What advice would you give him/her?
Affluenza
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/home.html
Take a closer look at household consumption and credit in the U.S.
People Like Us: Social Class in America
http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/
Use the site's interactive features to learn more about the markers and effects of social class in America.
Livelyhood
http://www.pbs.org/livelyhood/classroom/
Examine a wide variety of workplace issues including shift work, small business ownership, and more.
Store Wars
http://www.pbs.org/storewars/
Investigate one small community's response when Wal-Mart came to town.
First Measured Century
http://www.pbs.org/fmc/
Investigate all kinds of demographic data from 20th century America.
Need.com
http://www.pbs.org/weblab/needcom/
Get an inside, interactive look at panhandling on our city streets.
Juggling Work and Family
http://www.pbs.org/workfamily/
Learn more about the demands on today's working parents.
POV: Life and Debt
http://www.pbs.org/pov/lifeanddebt/
Learn about life in the Jamaican factories making goods for export to America.
POV: Take It From Me
http://www.pbs.org/pov/takeitfromme/
Explore how welfare reform has affected American women.
Globalization and Human Rights
http://www.pbs.org/globalization/
Read interviews with activists, CEOs, and others on the global economy.
Frontline: My Retirement Dreams
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/retire/
Read retirement stories from a cross-section of the senior citizen population.
Newton's Apple: Garbage
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/newtons/11/garbage.html
Learn more about the waste we generate.
Newton's Apple: Printing Money
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/newtons/12/money.html
Explore the art and science of creating currency.
Online NewsHour Extra for Teens: Money
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/on2/money.html
Learn about the history of money, the stock market, starting your own business, shoplifting, and more.
The New Americans: America Exports
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/newamericans/6.0/export.html
Examine America's economic relationships with Latin American countries.
NOVA: Secrets of Making Money
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/moolah/
Learn how the government stops counterfeiters.
NOVA: Virtual Stock Market
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stockmarket/virtual.html
Play this interactive game to simulate stock market fluctuations.
The People's Century
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/peoplescentury/teachers/
Get information about trends of the 20th century including assembly lines, globalization, and more.
Journey Into Amazonia
http://www.pbs.org/journeytoamazonia/teacher_raw.html
Learn about the raw materials that come from the rainforest and economics affects
rainforest conservation.
Don't miss this program airing in January! Check your local listings for the most accurate air date and time.
In Bill Moyers Reports: NAFTA's Powerful Little Secret Moyers takes an investigative look at how corporate investors are using an obscure provision in the North American Free Trade Agreement to secretly challenge laws, regulations and jury verdicts before an international trade tribunal. Allowed by chapter 11 of NAFTA, multinational corporations have been able to argue that certain laws aimed at protecting the environment are harmful to them economically. These parties are demanding compensation and getting it. Moyers explores how the provision got into NAFTA and who created it.
Life 360 presents the new episode "Milestones," an exploration of life's big events. Tami Yeager's film "On the Verge" follows graduating high school students as they head out into the world.
Everyday
Economics (January, 2002)