Two worksheets with questions based around news articles regarding economics. Used with my GCSE Business & Economics students to check understanding of the impact of interest rates, exchange rates, manufacturing output and infrastructure spending on the economy.

This is a Revision tool based on the old Blockbusters game format with a gameboard that can be customised with your own questions and can be used as a whole class revision resource or in pairs on their own computers. The player selects the hexagon and the question automatically appears at the bottom of the screen. The answer can be revealed by clicking the “Reveal Answer” button. The hexagon can then be turned blue or white depending on who won the hexagon or black if they got it wrong. The gameboard is currently loaded with GCSE revision business-related questions but can be changed by clicking on the “Questions” sheet and changing the information. After updating the Questions and Answers, click “Reset Gameboard” to rebuild the gameboard with your new questions and answers. If you have answers starting with the same letter then you can enter two letters to differentiate your answers. This opens the game to more possibilities. Note: This excel spreadsheet uses macros in order to work. Please enable them upon loading the spreadsheet.

This is an activity based lesson to investigate the role of the government in boosting the economy. The students break into groups of 4 to form a new government. There are four roles: Prime minister, chancellor, minister for business and home secretary. They work through a series of scenarios and have to argue their position. For each scenario, each person receives a "briefing" letter from their dept that outlines their position. They have 5 minutes to discuss within the group and then the prime minister needs to record their decision on the worksheet and justify it to their electorate. At the end of each scenario I get the prime minister in each group to stand up and justify their position to the rest of the class. They then see if their decision paid off on the powerpoint. The scenarios cover interest rate cuts & rises, investment in human capital, tax cuts and infrastructure spending.