Stringing Together Supply and Demand: A Tactile Approach to Graphing

In this economics lesson, students will use a yarn manipulative activity to accurately illustrate changes in supply and demand curves while practicing graphing skills.

• Stringing Together Supply and Demand slides
• Supply and Demand graph These should be color copies, or black and white copies with the supply and demand curves highlighted in red/blue. Copies may be laminated to be reused multiple times.

• One piece each of red and blue yarn, about 5-6 inches in length for each student. The yarn color can change, but must match what color is on the graph sheet.
• Copies of Individual Student Practice Activity for each student

Warm-Up:

Review supply and demand determinants with your students.   This lesson is meant to be used as a review of determinants and for students to practice graphing supply and demand.

Modeling:

Explain and demonstrate the procedure for the “string graphs.”

Distribute one laminated graph, one blue piece of yarn, and one red piece of yarn to each student or pair of students.

Display Slide 2.  Based on that scenario each student will decide if demand or supply is impacted and place the appropriate color yarn where the new line would be located.

Activity

Practice graphing using the Scenarios on Slides 3 and 4.  As the students are placing their yarn on the graph, the teacher will circulate around the room answering questions. After all of the students have placed their yarn on their graph, the teacher will read the scenario again and ask the class which line moved. After verifying the correct answer, the teacher will ask why that line moved? What determinant caused the line to move? What happened to price? Quantity? This process will be repeated with each of the scenarios.

Individual practice

After class discussion of all of the string graph scenarios, students will complete the Individual Student Practice activity.

Display Slides 6- 10.  Have students record their answers on an exit slip or use these questions as short quiz.

1.  Have students write their own prompts and draw the correspoinding graphs.
2. This same graph can be used for the aggregate model in AP if the teacher makes some adjustments. LRAS, original location and new location, can be included by adding a yellow piece of yarn and a purple piece of yarn.

Stringing Together Supply and Demand slides

Supply and Demand graph

Visual of Supply and Demand graph with yarn

Individual Student Practice handout

Answers for Individual Student Practice handout