Kindergarten students begin exploring basic economic concepts related to self, family, and community, focusing on wants, jobs, and goods vs. services.

• K - E1.0.1 (Scarcity & Choice): Describe choices people make because they cannot have everything they want.
• K - E1.0.2 (Jobs & Income): Explain how people earn income by working at various community jobs.
• K - E1.0.3 (Goods vs. Services): Distinguish between goods (tangible objects like food or toys) and services (actions performed by workers like doctors or firefighters).

First-grade students learn how economic roles function within families and schools, emphasizing producers, consumers, choice, trade, and savings.

• 1 - E1.0.1 (Producers & Consumers): Distinguish between producers (people who make goods or provide services) and consumers (people who buy or use goods and services).
• 1 - E1.0.2 (Scarcity & Choices): Describe how scarcity requires individuals and families to make choices about goods and services.
• 1 - E1.0.3 (Trade & Exchange): Identify how voluntary trade occurs when people exchange goods and services to satisfy wants.
• 1 - E1.0.4 (Saving Money): Explain why people save money for future wants and unexpected emergency needs.

Second-grade students examine the economy of their local community, exploring productive resources, opportunity cost, specialization, and money.

• 2 - E1.0.1 (Opportunity Cost): Identify the opportunity cost of a decision (the next best alternative given up when making a choice).
• 2 - E1.0.2 (Productive Resources): Distinguish between natural resources (land, water), human resources (labor, skills), and capital resources (tools, buildings) used in production.
• 2 - E1.0.3 (Specialization): Explain how specialization allows businesses and workers in the local community to produce goods and services more efficiently.
• 2 - E1.0.4 (Functions of Money): Describe how money makes trade easier compared to direct barter trading.

Third-grade students focus on the state economy of Michigan, exploring how resources, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, and trade shape Michigan's growth.

• 3 - E1.0.1 (Michigan Natural Resources): Explain how Michigan's natural resources (lumber, copper, iron ore, fertile soil, Great Lakes) influenced economic development.
• 3 - E1.0.2 (Michigan Manufacturing): Describe how Michigan industries use human, natural, and capital resources to manufacture products (e.g. automobiles, furniture, cereal).
• 3 - E1.0.3 (Entrepreneurship in Michigan): Analyze how Michigan entrepreneurs (e.g. Henry Ford, W.K. Kellogg) took risks to start major businesses.
• 3 - E1.0.4 (Interstate Trade): Describe how Michigan trades goods and services with other states and nations, creating economic interdependence.

Fourth-grade students examine the national economy of the United States, analyzing regional specialization, price determination, competition, and banking.

• 4 - E1.0.1 (Regional Specialization): Analyze how regional specialization leads to trade between different geographic regions of the United States.
• 4 - E1.0.2 (Supply and Demand): Describe how supply and demand interact to determine market prices for goods and services.
• 4 - E1.0.3 (Market Competition): Explain how competition among sellers benefits consumers through lower prices, higher quality, and product innovation.
• 4 - E1.0.4 (Role of Banks): Explain the function of banks and financial institutions in accepting deposits and granting loans to support business expansion.

Fifth-grade students examine early American economic history, focusing on colonial trade networks, mercantilism, and the economic incentives behind the Revolution.

• 5 - E1.0.1 (Colonial Incentives): Analyze the economic motives (gold, cash crops, raw materials) behind European exploration and colonization in North America.
• 5 - E1.0.2 (Triangular Trade): Describe the Triangular Trade routes connecting North America, Europe, and Africa, and its economic relationship to enslaved labor.
• 5 - E1.0.3 (Economic Causes of the Revolution): Analyze how British mercantilist policies, taxes (Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Tea Act), and colonial boycotts led to the Revolutionary War.

Sixth-grade students study global economic systems, comparing world market models, development indicators, and international trade barriers.

• 6 - E1.1.1 (Global Economic Systems): Compare market, command, traditional, and mixed economic systems operating in different world nations.
• 6 - E2.1.1 (Development Indicators): Explain GDP, GDP per capita, literacy rate, and life expectancy as indicators of a country's economic development.
• 6 - E3.1.1 (International Trade & Tariffs): Analyze the benefits and challenges of global trade, specialization, tariffs, quotas, and free trade agreements.

Seventh-grade students investigate ancient and classical economic developments, agricultural surpluses, early trade networks, and currency creation.

• 7 - E1.1.1 (Ancient Agriculture & Specialization): Explain how agricultural surpluses in early river valley civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, China) enabled division of labor and urbanization.
• 7 - E2.1.1 (Transcontinental Trade Routes): Analyze ancient global trade routes (such as the Silk Road and Saharan trade networks) and early currency systems.

Eighth-grade students analyze 19th-century American economic growth, industrialization, regional economic divergence, tariffs, and early national banking policies.

• 8 - E1.1.1 (The Industrial Revolution): Analyze technological innovations (steamboats, cotton gin, telegraph, railroads) that transformed the U.S. economy.
• 8 - E2.1.1 (Sectional Economic Differences): Compare the northern industrial market economy with the southern agricultural plantation economy based on enslaved labor.
• 8 - E3.1.1 (Federal Economic Debates): Analyze national banking disputes, protective tariffs (Tariff of Abominations), and Hamilton’s financial plan in early U.S. history.