Externalities

Externalities are one of my favorite things to teach in Economics. I open with this wordle and have the students discuss what they think the topic is that we are learning that day. I then have the students create a mind map using Popplet on positive and negative externalities. Next, they split into groups and go through the moral dilemma sheet and discuss each externality.  Finally, after discussing the situations, which usually get heated, we look at the USA Today report on school air quality. Our school is in the first percentile for bad air, we are surrounded by factories, so it is a great discussion on the externalities of factories. We get the tax money, but the poisoned air as well.