Students in AP Economics have been given the opportunity to apply the material they’ve learned in class so far this school year with a one-week project due Friday, for which they are tasked to make a movie poster or trailer.
¨The project is a choice between a movie trailer or a movie poster that describes the scarcity of an object and setting of their choosing,¨ AP Economics teacher Anthony Lopez said. ¨It relates to our class, course, and a fundamental problem of economics: unlimited wants and limited resources.
The project tests student knowledge about their first unit in a more creative way than a quiz or essay.
“The plot has to be about economic trade offs or supply and demand, which [are topics we’ve focused on] in class mostly through MCQs and FRQs, but now we get to do it in a more creative way,” senior Sraddha Pedaprolu said.
Pedaprolu’s group decided to do a movie trailer because they saw it as the more enjoyable choice.
“Me and my partner are doing a movie trailer, and we’re basically illustrating economic trade offs using different ice cream flavors and food wars,” she said. “We wanted to do a movie trailer because we thought it would be more fun and cinematic.”
Senior Maryam Afsheen’s group originally wanted to do a movie trailer too, but changed their minds later on.
“Our group is making a movie poster inspired by the cartoon Garfield,” Afsheen said. “We originally wanted to do a movie trailer, but with the limited time and the no-phone policy, it was hard to arrange filming, so we went with the poster instead.”
Students are able to put their understanding of skills and concepts learned in class to the test through the project.
“Doing this project has helped me develop my understanding of the Production Possibilities Curve,” senior Madeline Sanders said. “By having to come up with our own two products that will be graphed, I have improved my understanding of how the graph shifts.”
Besides enriching students’ learning, participating in this project has also helped some students learn lessons and skills that are unrelated to academics.
“One thing I’m taking away from the project is that being creative is kind of hard, but it’s really fun once you get started,” senior Ahmed Mohammed said. “Also, I got reminded that I need to start drawing again because of how my skills deteriorated, and it was a nice reminder to always practice these types of things.”
