COLLIN COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

 

DIVISION OF BUSINESS, INFORMATION AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES

 

COURSE SYLLABUS

 

Summer I Semester 2008

 

COURSE NUMBER:           ECON 2302            SECTIONS:          1S1 and 1S2

 

COURSE TITLE: PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS

 

CREDIT HOURS:  3            LECTURE HOURS:  3                        LAB HOURS:  0

 

COURSE DELIVERY METHOD:     Lecture/Demonstration

 

INFORMATION ON THE INSTRUCTOR:

                Professor:                              Mike Cohick, Ph.D.

                Office:                                    Spring Creek Campus J104

                Office Hours:                        MTW 12.10 – 2.10, or by appointment

                Office Phone:                        972-881-5840

                E-mail:                                    mcohick@ccccd.edu

Web site:                               http://iws.ccccd.edu, scroll down and click my name

                Emergency only:                  Department office phone 972-377-1731

 

CLASS INFORMATION:

                Class meets:                          1S1: MTWR 8.00 – 10.00 in SCC J209

                                                                1S2: MTWR 10.10 – 12.10 in SCC J209                                                            

 

TEXTBOOK:                       Arnold, Economics, 8th Edition (please bring the chapters under discussion to class)

 

PREREQUISITES:              MATH 0310 and ENGL 0305, or consent of the instructor. If you can competently compose English sentences

                                                and do basic algebra, you have my consent to take this course.

 

SUPPLIES:                           You will need a Scantron and a pencil for the final exam.

 

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

When you successfully complete this course, you should be able to:

1. Describe the importance of scarcity to economic decision making.

2. Identify the opportunity cost encountered in any decision.

3. Demonstrate the economic concepts of scarcity, trade-offs, efficiency, unemployment, and economic growth, using a production possibilities frontier model.

4. Interpret how changes in demand behavior and/or supply behavior affect prices and quantity in a market.

5. Justify how efficient market activity maximizes overall social well-being.

6. Demonstrate inefficiencies that develop in a market when government imposes any type of price control.

7. Identify the characteristics of goods that determine that good’s elasticity of demand.

8. Explain the importance of elasticity of demand in a firm’s pricing decisions.

9. Summarize the law of diminishing marginal utility, and describe the process one uses to arrive at consumer equilibrium.

10. Contrast accounting profit, economic profit, and normal profit.

11. Generate a model of the production cost curves in the short run and long run.

12. Analyze the reasons that lead to economies of scale and diseconomies of scale.

13. Outline the decision-making rules that lead to profit maximization or loss minimization.

14. Outline the decision-making rules that lead a firm to expand operations, to continue current operations, to cut back operations, or to close down in the short run.

15. Compare and contrast the characteristics of the four market structures.

16. Explain how a natural monopoly comes into existence and how it is operated.

17. Outline government approaches to mergers and monopolizing behavior.

18. Outline the decision-making rules that a profit-maximizing firm would use when hiring labor.

19. Describe reasons for income inequality.

20. Define interest and explain what determines its level.

21. Contrast positive and negative externalities and devise a government program to respond to each.

22. Describe what must be done to provide society adequate amounts of a public good.

23. Explain the importance of comparative advantage and give examples.

24. Compare and contrast who benefits and who loses in free international trade and in protected international trade.

25. Contrast a flexible foreign exchange rate system with a fixed exchange rate system.

 

METHOD OF EVALUATION:

1. Comprehensive final exam at 100+ points.

2. Nine quizzes at 12 points each, totaling 108 points.

3. (Optional) Three page paper, subject to be announced, to replace a missed quiz, at 12 points.

3. Maximum: 208+ points. Divisor: 200 points. With no curve, 180 = A; 160 = B, 140 = C, and 120 = D.

 

QUIZZES:

There will be a quiz each Monday and Wednesday.

Each quiz will:

                a.  have questions from the material covered since the last quiz.

                b.  consist of multiple-choice and true-false.

                c.  start at the beginning of class. You must turn in your completed quiz 15 minutes after class start time.

                If you arrive to class after 15 minutes, you cannot take or make up the quiz.

 

                COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM:

This exam is a combination of multiple-choice and true-false questions selected from the nine quizzes previously taken and the homework sets.

If you miss this exam, there is no opportunity for a make-up.

 

OPTIONAL PAPER:

Subject, details and grading will be discussed in class. Copying Internet sources will earn you a zero. Paper is due Tuesday, July 8. No late papers will be accepted.

 

HOMEWORK SETS:

You may find eight homework sets, one for each part of the course, on my website. Do not turn in these sets. You will not receive a grade.

The answers are on reserve at the main desk of the SCC library. So why do them? Problems like these show up on the quizzes and the final exam.

 

ATTENDANCE POLICY:

  1. If it is going to be a problem coming to class, maybe you should reconsider taking this class at this time.
  2. I expect you to attend every class, to arrive on time, and to participate in class activities. You are responsible for all work assigned and all material covered in class.
  3. Multiple absences, leaving class early without prior permission, and/or tardiness tell me that you don’t care what grade you receive in the course.

        Therefore, I will not include you when I create a curve to determine letter grades.

  1. Religious Holy Days:  please refer to the current Collin Student Handbook

 

ELECTRONIC DEVICE POLICY:

Close down, silence and put away all electronic gadgets - cell phones, laptop computers, music players, texting devices, and the like – when you enter the classroom.

You do not need any of these devices to participate in my class. Immediately and quietly go outside the classroom if your cell phone/pager buzzes you.

 

COURSE WITHDRAWAL POLICY:

All who are officially enrolled after July 3 (the last day to drop) will receive a letter grade based on the grading scale above.

 

GENERIC SYLLABUS:

You can get a copy of the generic syllabus at the division office or at this web site: http://iws.ccccd.edu/syllabus

 

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT STATEMENT:

It is the policy of Collin County Community College to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals who are students with disabilities.

This College will adhere to all applicable federal, State and local laws, regulations and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations

as required to afford equal educational opportunity. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the ACCESS office, SCC-G200 or 972.881.5950 (V/TTD: 972.881.5950)

in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate accommodations.

 

ACADEMIC ETHICS:

The College District may initiate disciplinary proceedings against a student accused of scholastic dishonesty. Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not

limited to, statements, acts, or omissions related to applications for enrollment or the award of a degree, and/or the submission as one’s own work material

that is not one’s own. Scholastic dishonesty may involve, but is not limited to, one or more of the following acts: cheating, plagiarism, collusion, use of

annotated texts or teacher’s editions, and/or falsifying academic records.

Plagiarism is the use of an author’s words or ideas as if they were one’s own without giving credit to the source, including, but not limited to, failure

to acknowledge a direct quotation.

Cheating is the willful giving or receiving of information in an unauthorized manner during an examination, illicitly obtaining examination questions in

advance, copying computer or Internet files, using someone else’s work for assignments as if it were one’s own, or any other dishonest means of

attempting to fulfill the requirements of a course.

Collusion is intentionally aiding or attempting to aid another in an act of scholastic dishonesty, including but not limited to, providing a paper or project

to another student; providing an inappropriate level of assistance; communicating answers to a classmate during an examination; removing tests or

answer sheets from a test site, and allowing a classmate to copy answers.

Any incident of academic dishonesty will be reported immediately to the Division Dean and to the Dean of Students for adjudication. Until adjudication is

complete, you will receive a “zero” on the work in question.


 

 

CLASS SCHEDULE

(Subject to change)

 

WEEK                    DATE                                     ACTIVITY

1

M June 9

T June 10

W June 11

R June 12

Part 1 (read chapters 1 and 2)

Part 1

Quiz. Followed by Part 2 (read chapters 3 and 4)

Part 2

2

M June 16

T June 17

W June 18

R June 19

Quiz, followed by Part 2

Part 3 (read chapters 17 and 18)

Quiz, followed by Part 3

Part 4 (read chapter 19)

3

M June 23

T June 24

W June 25

R June 26

Quiz, followed by Part 4

Part 4

Quiz, followed by Part 5 (read chapters 20, 21, 22, and 23)

Part 5

4

M June 30

T July 1

W July 2

R July 3

Quiz, followed by Part 6 (read chapters 24, 25, 26, and 27)

Part 6

Quiz, followed by Part 7 (read chapters 28 and 29)

Part 7. Last day to withdraw with a W.

5

M July 7

T July 8

W July 9

R July 10

Quiz, followed by Part 8 (read chapters 30, 31, and 32)

Part 8. Optional paper is due.

Quiz, followed by Part 8

COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM