Classroom Resource

Flying Cheap: The Crash of Continental Flight 3407

Subject Area

Social Studies

Grade(s)

12

Overview

In February 2009, Continental Flight 3407 crashed outside of Buffalo, NY, killing 50 people. The flight was operated by Colgan Air, a regional airline that flies routes under contract for US Airways, United, and Continental. The crash and subsequent investigation revealed a little-known trend in the airline industry: Major airlines have outsourced more of their flights to obscure regional carriers.

In this video chapter from FRONTLINE  Flying Cheap, correspondent Miles O'Brien explores this trend and examines some of the many factors that may have contributed to the accident.

Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 12 - Economics

SS10.E.3

Describe different economic systems used to allocate scarce goods and services.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.E.3

Vocabulary

  • Adam Smith
  • invisible hand
  • laissez faire economics
  • command economy
  • market economy (free enterprise or capitalism)
  • traditional economy
  • mixed economy
  • consumer sovereignty
  • voluntary exchange

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The characteristics of each basic type of economic system.
  • The three basic economic choices.
  • How each the three basic economic choices are made in the different types of economic systems.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify examples of different types of economic systems.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • There are specific roles for consumers, businesses and government in each type of economic system.
  • Each type of system responds to and incorporates change.
  • The type of economic system impacts economic growth.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 12 - Economics

SS10.E.4

Describe the role of government in a market economy, including promoting and securing competition, protecting private property rights, promoting equity, providing public goods and services, resolving externalities and other market failures, and stabilizing growth in the economy.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.E.4

Vocabulary

  • positive externalities (spillover benefits)
  • negative externalities (spillover costs)
  • public goods and services
  • tragedy of the commons

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The roles of government in a market economy.
  • The purpose of each of the government's roles in a market economy.
  • How to identify examples of the government acting in each of its roles in a market economy.
  • The different types of market failures.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify the ways in which governments, including the United States government, participate in the economy.
  • Determine the impact of government actions in the market.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • There are specific causes market failures.
  • Government action can sometimes correct for failures of private markets.
  • Government actions impact the market.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 12 - Economics

SS10.E.7

Describe the organization and role of business.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.E.7

Vocabulary

  • sole proprietorship
  • partnership
  • corporation
  • stock
  • bond
  • pure competition (perfect competition)
  • monopoly
  • patents
  • copyrights
  • trademarks
  • monopolistic competition
  • oligopoly
  • collusion
  • vertical merger
  • horizontal merger
  • law of diminishing returns
  • economies of scale
  • diseconomies of scale
  • short run
  • long run

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The advantages and disadvantages of the three major forms of business organization.
  • The characteristics of each type of competition.
  • How oligopolies are formed.
  • The different types of monopoly.
  • The meaning of the profit motive and how it impacts production decisions.
  • How businesses invest using equity financing, borrowing and saving.
  • The advantages and disadvantages of each method of raising money for investment.
  • How businesses compete through pricing and marketing.
  • The different types of economic institutions and their goals.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify the characteristics of the basic forms of business organization and determine the appropriate form of organization for different situations.
  • Identify and construct a perfectly competitive market graph (supply and demand graph).
  • Calculate examples of diminishing returns.
  • Draw short run and long run ATC curves.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Different forms of business organization may be appropriate depending on the type of good or service to be produced.
  • Different methods of raising money for investment are appropriate depending on the goals of the business.
  • There are many ways in which businesses compete depend on the type of industry structure.
  • The actions of economic institutions impact market outcomes.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 12 - Economics

SS10.E.8

Explain the impact of the labor market on the United States’ economy.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.E.8

Vocabulary

  • inflation
  • unemployment rate
  • labor force
  • labor productivity
  • Philips curve
  • Misery index
  • stagflation

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The factors that affect labor productivity and wages.
  • The factors that affect the supply of and demand for labor.
  • How the Phillips curve reflects trade-offs between inflation and unemployment.
  • The impact of demographics and regional specialization on wages and employment.
  • The non-market factors that affect wages, such as discrimination.
  • The overall economic impact of inflation and unemployment.
  • The role of Alabama in the national and global economies.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Determine how certain factors impact wages and employment.
  • Determine specific impacts on economic growth of inflation and unemployment.
  • Use the Phillips curve to calculate trade-offs between inflation and unemployment.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • There are certain factors that affect labor productivity and wages.
  • There are certain factors that affect the supply of and demand for labor.
  • There are trade-offs between inflation and unemployment reflected on the Phillips curve.
  • Demographics and regional specialization, as well as productivity, affect wages and employment.
  • Non-market factors also impact wages.
  • Inflation and unemployment negatively impact economic growth.
  • Economic interdependence in Alabama impacts and is impacted by the national and global economies.
Link to Resource
https://aptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/frntc10.guide.flying/flying-cheap-th…

CR Resource Type

Audio/Video

Resource Provider

PBS
Accessibility
License

License Type

Custom

Custom License Type (URL)

https://aptv.pbslearningmedia.org/help/terms-of-use/#.YGKPdlVKjIX

Comments or Notes

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Approved Date

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