Social Studies and Technology

2006-10-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

ALIGNING UNITS with STANDARDS

Lesson: Was Babe Ruth Underpaid?

Overview:

This lesson demonstrates a method for teaching students about inflation and the Consumer Price Index, using baseball players' salaries for purposes of illustration. Babe Ruth's salary from 1931 is adjusted to account for changes in the price level and is then compared to the salaries of those playing major league baseball players today.

Grade Level:

9-12

Time Frame:

45 minutes

Resources Needed:

Notebook, internet access, overhead projector, Smart-board, pens, pencils, calculators, lab top cart

Related Internet Sites:

Consumer Price Index (CPI) data can be found at:
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/hist1913.cfm

Data on salaries for today's MLB players:
http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/salaries/default.aspx

Inflation Calculator:
http://minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

ECONedlink Calculator:
http://www.econedlink/interactives/calculator.html

What's in the basket of goods information:
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpiri_2005.pdf

New York State Learning Standards – Social Studies

Standard 4: Economics

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.

Performance Indicators

Define basic economic concepts such as scarcity, supply and demand, markets, opportunity costs, resources, productivity, economic growth, and systems

Identify and collect economic information from standard reference works, newspapers, periodicals, computer databases, textbooks, and other primary and secondary sources

Evaluate economic data by differentiating fact from opinion and identifying frames of reference

Present economic information by using media and other appropriate visuals such as tables, charts, and graphs to communicate ideas and conclusions

Lesson Objectives

Students will:

Use the consumer price index (CPI).
Understand that changes in the rate of inflation relative to changes in earnings can improve or worsen purchasing power.
Understand that constant dollar figures are more useful for making comparisons than current dollar figures.

Key Economic Concepts:

Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Inflation
Price

Introduction

In 1931, Babe Ruth made $80,000 per year. Was the Great Bambino overpaid or underpaid according to today's standards? On average, Major League Baseball (MLB) players today earn $2,272,620 per year.

Task

Determine whether Babe Ruth was overpaid or underpaid in comparison to today's MLB players. This question can be answered by using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to adjust Ruth's salary for changes in the price level.

Body

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) can be used to compare dollar figures from different times accurately. The students may have heard their grandparents telling them that they remember when a gallon of gas cost a quarter or a loaf of bread cost a dime. But those numbers by themselves don't tell us how expensive things were in the old days compared to now. It's the same with salary figures from the past. For example in 1931 when Babe Ruth had a batting average of .373 with 46 home runs and 163 RBIs, an ice-cream cone cost five cents and going to a movie in a theater cost a quarter. Ruth's salary then was $80,000 per year. But it is not clear from that salary figure alone whether Ruth enjoyed better or worse purchasing power than today's players.

In order to investigate this question, a couple of concepts from economics must be introduced. First, the inflation rate: It is the percentage of increase in the price level of the economy as measured by the CPI. The CPI tracks the overall price change for a fixed basket of goods and services bought by a typical working-class urban family over time. It is a measure of price changes in consumer goods - also known as the "cost of living index." The CPI "basket" contains goods and services that have been chosen for the CPI survey. Imagine a shopping basket loaded up with fruit, chocolate, meat, chips and other items from each of the nine groups used in the organization of the CPI. The items in the basket must be identical in quantity and quality over a period of time. Some changes in prices may be due to increased quality or improved packaging, but these are not "pure" price changes. When this happens, price adjustments are made to remove the effect of these changes.

We can also distinguish between current dollars and constant dollars. The value of the income (or purchase) at the time it was actually earned (or spent) is measured in current dollars. Current dollars are dollars from other time periods converted into present-day dollars, in order to factor out the effects of inflation. Adjusting a current dollar figure to show the impact of inflation on the purchasing power converts the figure into constant dollars. Constant dollars eliminate the changes in the purchasing power of the dollar over time. The result is a series as it would exist if the dollar had a purchasing power equal to its purchasing power in the base year. For example, it is more useful to compare the change in annual wages measured in constant dollars than in current dollars because of the effect of inflation on purchasing power. While wages in current dollars may have risen over time, wages in constant dollars may have declined because prices of goods and services that workers bought rose more than wages.

Practice

Given all of this, how do we actually make the comparison? Well, this is done using a simple formula as follows:

Note: * = multiplication

Salary in Constant Dollars (Recent Year) = Salary in Current Dollars (Old Year)*(CPI in Recent Year/CPI in Old Year)

[Using data on the consumer price index from the web page above we can determine what Ruth's constant dollar salary was as follows:

Ruth salary in 2005 Constant Dollars= Ruth Salary in 1931 Current Dollars * (CPI in 2005/CPI in 1931)

$1,027,895 = $80,000 * (195.3/15.2)

[Ruth's salary in constant 2005 dollars was about $1 million per year. This is clearly lower than even the average baseball player makes today, and much less than the stars make (Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is the highest-paid MLB player at $22 million per year). In 2005, 426 MLB players made the same as or more than the great Babe Ruth.]

Conclusion

This lesson introduces the idea of inflation and the consumer price index. Students learn how to adjust dollar figures from previous times and compare them to dollar figures today by using a formula or by using the inflation calculator.

Assessment

President Hoover made $75,000 per year in 1931. President Bush earned $400,000 in 2005. Who earned more in constant or 2005 dollars?

$963,651 = $75,000 * (195.3/15.2)
Hoover was paid significantly more than Bush when changes in the price level are considered.

2006-10-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

Citizenship in Physical Education

In PhyEd lessons students are required to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in a range of different practical and sporting activities. It is also expected that, through Phys Ed, students will become aware of fitness and health issues which will help them to understand the effects that different lifestyles have on their personal well-being.

The emphasis in Phys Ed is on improving the physical competence of each student. Phys Ed involves students in a continuous process of acquiring, adapting and refining their skills and techniques in a variety of practical activities. Students must practise to improve the quality, consistency and control of their movements before applying their skills in different sporting contexts. Through the provision of a broad- based, balanced and relevant curriculum, it is hoped that students will become actively involved in a variety of sports.

Phys Ed is a process that requires students to develop their personal and social skills to enable them to work safely and effectively with others. It provides opportunities for students to develop their problem-solving and initiative skills; for example, through situations such as co-operating as a member of a team or applying tactical strategies to a game. Phys Ed allows students to acquire the skills to appreciate, reflect and comment on the qualities of their own and others' performances. These skills can then be used to improve the quality of a performance. Phys Ed should equip students with the ability to adopt different roles (e.g. player, coach or referee) within a variety of different sporting environments.

The unique nature of Phys Ed is that it ewmphasizes students' physical development as part of their learning. It links students' intellectual, social and physical development and enhances their self-esteem and self-respect. It motivates them to adopt an active lifestyle, both in and out of school.

2006-10-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

WEB SITE REVIEW 1

Site: http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp

1. Graphic Design

The welcome page provides you with the option of either viewing the site in English or Spanish. The screens throughout the site are uncluttered and the design is consistent throughout the site. All instructions are presented in clear positive language. The use of multimedia allows you to take both a visual and narrated tour of the brain, heart, skeleton and digestive tract which caters for the diiferent learning needs of all my students. There are no advertisements on any of the screens which means my students are more likely to stay focused on the required task..

2. Navigation

The site is easy to navigate and therefore allows my students to work at their own pace. Each of the four sub-sections have a clear structure which aids the learning needs of all my students. By rolling the mouse over a body part, the students receive an indepth look at that particular part.

3. Content Type

The content is suitable for high school aged students who are studying either Physical Education, Health or Human Biology. There is a good range of content to keep the students motivated e.g. narrated tours, games, animation, and zoom in facilities. It allows me as a teacher to create a worksheet that the students can either fill in independently or in small groups as they view the materials. The content allows for group discussions to take place at any point in the lesson.

4. Content Validity

The site is owned and operated by ehc.com and affiliates. They subscribe to the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct for healthcare websites. The information on the site has not changed since its inception in 2001.

5. Educational Value

The site is directly usable with meeting some of the objectives of the New York State Standards for Health and Physical Education. I find it to be an excellent way of introducing my students to the human body. The students are more motivated to learn the material than if they were using the traditonal text book method. The site provides indepth material both in English and Spanish and caters for the learning needs of my ESL students and visual and audio learners.

Gymnastics Lessons

2006-09-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

When teaching a unit on gymnastics, I show my students how to use digital video technology as an aid to improving their own and others' performances in physical education. The use of video is designed to develop the students' observational and analytical skills when studying human movement.

The theme for my nine week unit, was maintaining, disturbing and resolving balance. All lessons began with a warm-up, including video excerpts from the previous lesson, followed by specific technical development on different gymnastic movements related to using the body to balance. The unit progressed into the practising of sequence building where the emphasis was on immproving the rhythm and flow of the seperate movements. Each lesson finished with a cool down that practised short phrases of teacher-directed movements in order to develop students' repertoire of simple sequences. The students worked mainly as pairs.