Drexel University

LeBow College of Business

INTRODUCTORY SYLLABUS
Econ 201-004
Principles of
Microeconomics
(6 pages)

Term: Fall, AY 2015-16

Time & Place: Tuesday/Thursday, 10:00 - 11:50 PM, Pearl 101

Course Credits: Four (4) quarter credits
Prerequisites: None

Faculty: Patricia Awerbuch, MBA, pma26@drexel.edu

Telephone: 215-571-4365

Office Hours: GHall 925, Tuesday/Thursday 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Please make an email appointment in advance to make sure I am free. If you need
to meet on a day other than Tuesday or Thursday, request an appointment by
email and I will do my best to accommodate you. PLEASE PUT YOUR COURSE
NUMBER AND SECTION NUMBER ON ALL EMAILS: THANK YOU!

Required Text: Krugman, Paul and Robin Wells, Microeconomics in Modules, 3rd Ed.,
(Worth Publishers, 2014) ISBN-13: 978-1-4641-3904-8

Required Sapling Problem Set: ISBN-13: 978-1-941989-31-9: Detailed explanation

of how to access your Sapling assignments is given on page 2, under Course
Materials

Changes to Syllabus

The student acknowledges receipt of this syllabus and the information herein by
continuing to attend this course. The Instructor reserves the right to make changes
to this syllabus if circumstances warrant such change. All major changes will be
provided to the student in writing.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Principles of Microeconomics will introduce you to the allocation decisions made by

businesses and households in a market economy. You will learn how to construct an
opportunity cost as the criterion used in all economic decision-making. You will
study the behavior of consumers and producers that leads to a market equilibrium,
how and why changes in that equilibrium occur, the relationship between
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productivity, cost, and market prices, and the competitive structure of the
marketplace.
The course includes a team project. Teams will meet during class three times
during the term to discuss questions that relate economic theory to real-world
challenges faced by businesses.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

frame an allocation decision as an opportunity cost;
calculate and graph a market equilibrium and identify how equilibrium price
and quantity will change with changes in incomes or in the relative prices of
other goods and resources;
calculate price elasticity and describe how elasticity shapes business risk and
business strategy;
calculate consumer surplus and describe other measures of welfare;
recognize, calculate, and graph (using Excel) measures of productivity and
cost, and demonstrate the rules for determining whether labor and capital
are efficiently allocated;
demonstrate the rules for maximizing business profits under different
competitive conditions;
identify a market failure and describe public policy options for correcting
market failure;
describe the labor market equilibrium and calculate the market value of
labor's productivity.

COURSE MATERIALS:

Blackboard: On your Blackboard website you can download the power point
slides used in lecture, supplemental lecture and review materials, and problem
sets for Team Days. <learn.dcollege.net>

Required Text: Purchase and rental is available from our Bookstore

Sapling Problem Sets: These problem sets are designed to accompany the
Krugman text and can be purchased directly from the publisher.
1. Go to http://saplinglearning.comand click on "US Higher Ed" at the top right
of the page
2. If you already have a Sapling Learning account, log in and skip to step 5
3. If you have a Facebook account, you can use it to quickly create a Sapling
Learning account. Click the blue button with the Facebook symbol on it (just
to the left of the username field). The form will auto-fill (you may need to log
into Facebook in the popup window first). Choose a password and your time
zone, accept the site policy agreement, and click "Create my new account."
Go to step 5.
4. If you don't have a Facebook account, click the "Create Account" link. Supply
the requested information and click "Create My Account." Check your email

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and spam filter for a message from Sapling Learning and click on the link
provided in that email.
5. Find your course in the list (you may need to expand the subject and term
categories and click the link. Our course is "Drexel University - Econ 201
Principle of Microeconomics -Fall 16-AWERBUCH"
6. [If your course requires a key code, you will be prompted to enter it.] Our
course does not require a key code.
7. [If your course requires payment, select a payment option and follow the
remaining instructions.] Our course does require payment.

You can purchase the eBook of the required text together with the required Sapling
account directly from the publisher. And if you wish to use your Financial Aid
account to purchase a Sapling account, Sapling access cards are available in the
Drexel Bookstore.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS and GRADING RUBRICS:

Attend Lecture: attendance is taken every day and is worth 4% of your grade
Read weekly text assignments
In some weeks there will be a supplemental document entitled "Terms and
Concepts" and/or extra practice problems available on Blackboard to aid your
understanding. Power Points slides used in lecture are also available on
Blackboard
Sapling Learning Assignments: practice problems count for 18% of your
grade in total; Hints to help you with Sapling are available on Blackboard
Three (3) in-class Team Problem Sets. Attendance is required on Team Days;
Team Days count for 18% of your grade in total
One (1) midterm test, given during class in Week 5, 20% of your grade
One (1) midterm test given during class in Week 8, 15% of your grade
One (1) semi-comprehensive final exam, given during final exam week, 25%
of your grade

Grading Rubric: All Grading Events

Grade Event Due Date Grade Points
Team Day 1 (Finding Opportunity Cost) 7
Sapling Problems (Modules 1-3, 5-7, 9-11) 7
Midterm Test 1 (Text Modules 1-3, 5-12) 20
Team Day 2 (Excel Exercise: Cost & 7
Productivity)
Sapling Problems (Modules 21-26, 28-30) 7
Midterm Test 2 (Text Modules 21-26, 28-30) 15
Team Day 3 (Social Dilemma Game) 4
Sapling Problems (Modules 31, 34, 36, 40, 42) 4
Attendance 4

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Final Exam (Text Modules 31-37, 40-42 and TBA 25
~40% Comprehensive Questions)

Grading Rubric: Team Days

Attendance Question Points Total
Team Day 1: 2 5 7
Team Day 2: 2 5 7
Team Day 3: 2 2 4

Grading Rubric: Attendance

90% attendance miss 2 lectures 4 points
80% attendance miss 4 lectures 3 points
70% attendance miss 6 lectures 2 points
60% attendance miss 8 lectures 1 point
One excused absence is 'free'; fractional points are awarded; athletes excused for
games

FAILURE TO COMPLETE COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Please Read

Carefully

1) There are no after-the-fact make-up tests in this course. At the beginning of

classes your will be provided with a calendar showing the dates of our Midterm
Tests and Team Days and the due dates for Sapling Problems. Please copy those
due dates into your personal calendar.
2) Our final exam takes place during Final Exam week as scheduled by the
Registrar. Final Exam week ends on Saturday, December 10, 2016 and our exam
could be scheduled for that last day of the term.
i) If you are going to miss either Midterm exam, you must notify me in
advance to schedule a make-up exam, and your reason for missing the
test must be unavoidable. If you do not notify me in advance, you will
receive a zero for the midterm. If you are unable to notify me in advance
because of unforeseen emergency (car accident, hospitalization, death in
the family), notify me as soon as possible after the event.
ii) If you leave the city, state, country or planet before our final exam is
given, and do not attend the final exam during final exam week, you will
receive a zero for the final exam. If you have also missed a previous
Midterm or Team Day unexcused, you will fail the course. There are no
exceptions*. Do not make travel plans earlier than Sunday, Deccember
11.
iii) * There are two university-approved exceptions regarding finals: if you are
on a sports team where the whole team will be out of town competing
during final exam week, I will give an early final to members of the team
who are in my class. And if you have three exams in one day, one of your
three teachers will reschedule for you during final exam week. You must
apply for this to the Office of the Provost, who will determine which exam
date will be changed. The application form is found (or linked) in your
Student Handbook.

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3) Attendance is required on Team Days. Team days are shown on the calendar at
the end of this introductory syllabus.
i) If you are going to miss a Team Day you must notify me in advance and
the reason for your absence must be unavoidable. When you are excused
from a Team Day, you are excused from the two (2) attendance points of
that team day. Your total grade points become 98 points instead of 100
points. You should complete the written portion on your own and submit it
to me by email by the end of that week. You will receive a grade for the
written portion.
ii) If you miss a Team Day without advance notice, you will receive zero for
that assignment.
4) Sapling Problems close on the Due Date shown. Due Dates are listed in your
syllabus, on Blackboard in the Sapling item each week, and on the Sapling site
itself. There are no extensions. The program has been pre-set to close on the
due date and the problems cannot be re-opened for you to continue work
beyond that date.

Check your Blackboard Overview item at the beginning of each week so

that you know which deadlines are imminent. This Syllabus is provided to
introduce you to the course requirements. A Weekly Schedule of lecture
topics and due dates will also be provided as a separate document at the
beginning of the term.

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HOW TO ACCCESS AND COMPLETE COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Sapling Problems: Once you have your Sapling Account and can enter our
course site, you will see Module and Question Numbers selected for you to
complete. The question numbers for that week are listed in the Sapling item on our
Blackboard website, and there is also a document entitled "Sapling Hints" for you
to download from Blackboard each week. Please read this document before
attempting to solve the Sapling problems on your own. The Due Date for each set
of Sapling Problems is also given there. The problems are always due by 8:00 PM
on the evening prior to the test on the material covered by the problems.

Instructions for how to complete the questions are given on the question page
when you click on the question. There are also instructional tools on the Sapling
site that allow you to experiment with the various tools available to you for solving
each question, such as moving lines on a graph, completing computations, etc.
Multiple trials are allowed with each question and some fractional grade points will
be deducted with each trial.

Because these questions are short, I have selected a few questions from almost
every module. The point values within the program are high enough to allow
multiple trials with affecting the course grade points (18 pts) associated with these
problems. Most students do not receive 100% but those who complete all the
modules typically receive between 17 and 18 grade points, even with multiple
tries. Sapling grade points are determined as follows:

[Sapling points earned/ 345 points] x 7 grade points possible = your grade
[Sapling points earned/300 points] x 7 grade points possible = your grade
[Sapling points earned/177 points] x 4 grade points possible = your grade

Team Days: All of our Team work is done in the classroom. Team Days are shown
when they occur in the Week-by-Week section of your syllabus, in the calendar at
the end of the syllabus, and in the Overview Content Area for that Week on
Blackboard. Attendance is required on Team Days.

The only preparation required for a Team Day is to read the problem set before
coming to class. The Problem Set can be downloaded from the Team Problem
Content Area for that week on Blackboard.

Access your Team by clicking on Group Collaboration in the main menu on our
Blackboard website. That link connects you to a page created for your team. One
copy of the work you complete as a team will be uploaded to the File Exchange
linked on your Team page. For the first Team Day, an Answer Sheet is already
provided for this purpose. Please submit your work using this Answer Sheet
document. Please do not convert the Answer Sheet to another program. I can open
Microsoft Office documents and pdf but not Pages.

Midterm Test and Final Exam Formats:

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The tests are multiple-choice tests and they are machine-graded. No cell phones
are allowed. Calculators will be provided to you.

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GRADING SCALE:

98-100 A+ 87-89 B+ 77-79 C+ 65-69 D+

93-97 A 83-86 B 73-76 C 60-64 D
90-92 A- 80-82 B- 70-72 C- Below 60 F

DISABILITY STATEMENT:

Students with disabilities requesting accommodations and services at Drexel

University need to present a current accommodation verification letter (AVL) to
faculty before accommodations can be made. AVLs are issued by the Office of
Disability Services (ODS). For additional information, contact ODS at
www.drexel.edu/ods/ 3201 Arch St., Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, PA 19104,
215.895.1401 (V), or 215.895.2299 (TTY).

STUDENT OBLIGATIONS:

Drop/Add/Withdrawal Policy:

Once the student is registered in this course, it is his or her responsibility to attend
the course, drop the course, or withdraw from the course. Dropping and
withdrawing are distinct actions that affect a students course enrollment status. In
either case, a form from the University Registrars Office, with signatures, is
required to change course enrollment status. There are billing, financial aid, and
academic records that are affected by changes to a students enrollment status in
this course; therefore, the student must attend to the proper procedure when
dropping or withdrawing from a course. Please refer to the Universitys
drop/add/withdrawal policies and timelines on the Registrars website or contact
the appropriate academic advisor.

Academic Integrity:

Drexel University is committed to a learning environment that embraces honesty.

Faculty, students, and administrators share responsibility for maintaining this
environment of academic honesty and integrity, accepting responsibility for all
actions, personal and academic. Each member of the Drexel community is
expected to read, understand, and uphold the values identified and described for
academic integrity. An explanation of what constitutes academic dishonesty can be
found on the Provosts website at:
http://www.drexel.edu/provost/policies/academic_dishonesty.asp

An explanation of the sanctions given for academic dishonesty can be found both
in the BSN Student Handbook and on the website of the Office of Conduct and
Community Standards at
http://www.drexel.edu/studentlife/judicial/honesty.html

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Financial Obligations:

Students who do not satisfy financial obligations to the University and have been
placed on financial hold are not entitled to a final and official course grade by the
Instructor. Official course grades are submitted by faculty through Drexels Banner
academic information management system.