Year 11 Economics Excursion

The Year 11 Economics class under the leadership of Mr. Swart (Preservice Teacher) and Mr Nguyen, undertook an educational and fun excursion to the Adelaide Central Market on Thursday 4 September. This excursion bookended an informative unit of work and an assignment, where the Year 11s were taught the theory and principles behind ‘Thinking like an Economist’. Thinking like an economist and being fluent in the ‘language’ of business, finance and economical principles is critical for the world after school, and they did a great job of applying those theories in an authentic real world market environment. This unit included concepts that included, but were not limited to:

• Safety Management;
• Cost Analysis and cost benefits analysis;
• Trade-offs and Competitive edge;
• Supply and demand;
• Competition (E.g., why do stalls next to each other selling the same products have different prices…?) Take economics and you’ll find out 😊;
• Quality Control;
• Reputational risk (for example did you know – one of the impacts of the Leongatha mushroom poisoning case recently in the news has caused mushroom sales in the market to plummet…);
• Import and Export analysis;
• Globalisation and Multiculturalism;
• The Circular Economy, Sustainability and Waste Management;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Planning (proper planning prevents poor performance 😊) and Budgeting;
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and
• Production performance curves and frontiers (the students favourite class lessons…?)

The excursion was conducted in an informal formative manner where an online series of challenges and questions were set on a platform called a ‘Goosechase’ (students had special permission to use their phones during this research phase to complete the tasks and take notes). Students formed teams and went competitively through the various questions and interviews with stakeholders, stall holders and business owners, documenting and answering their findings and taking photos and videos of the evidence and were allocated points for each challenge completed.

There were fun challenges too – students were tasked to ‘do an act of kindness’, and ‘take a fun group photo’, and network with any fellow school pupils in the market.

There was much good food eaten, laughter, learning and leadership displayed by the group, who conducted themselves in a professional manner and represented Norwood International High School to a high standard. This was evidenced by Mr. Swart and Mr. Nguyen being advised by many stallholders that they were polite, courteous in their interviews, fun, well behaved and very professional.

The excursion ended with a reflective exercise as an exit ticket. The 11’s were asked to consider their day and answer questions themed along the lines of what they had learnt and observed about the economy in action.

Good work 11’s – all the best with the rest of your studies and if you choose so, in your careers as Economists!

Gavin Swart
Pre-Service Teacher

Chris Nguyen
Director of Senior School & Teacher, Economics