General Education Capstone Course
Event Details and Guideline Form
Event Title: Economic Profile of a Country
Gen. Ed. Category Event should be listed under: Social Science
SCC Competency addressed by event:
- Explain social institutions, structure, and processes across a range of historical periods, places and /or cultures.
- Draw on the social sciences to evaluate the diversity and complexity of contemporary local and global issues to provide a better understanding of the student’s relationship to the social issues.
Guideline for accomplishment of event:
The purpose of this project is to give the student an opportunity to know the social and economic environments of another country.
The research project is the collection and presentation of data on a country of your choice. The country CANNOT be the United States. The paper must be written in paragraph form, i.e. the paper CANNOT be just a series of tables and graphs.
You shall collect and present the following data:
- GDP, GDP by components, GDP growth, GDP per capita, consumer price index, inflation rate, inflationary trends, the average wage rate, unemployment, unemployment trends, income and wealth repartition, political economic environment, saving rate, interest rate, government spending situation, balance of trade, major trading partners, exchange rates between major trading partners, the overall “atmosphere” of conducting business in that country, and whatever else you feel is relevant to the study of the economy of that country.
Please evaluate this country’s economic situation based on data you collect and answer the following questions:
- What are the overall social and economic environments in this country? (Note: You need to compare the economic data over time to see the trend of economic path. From the data, you should be able to identify whether the economic situation is getting better or worse).
- How does this country’s economy connect to the global economy? Is there any global issue impacting this country’s economy or society?
- What is public reaction to recent political or economic changes in this country?
You can find most of data from the following useful sources. If some data are not available on the following websites, you might use Google to search them over the Internet.
www.cia.gov (world factbook)
www.worldbank.org (countries)
The Bureau of Statistics of each country
SCC Event Creator: Litao (Lee) Zhong (636-922-8533), Bruce Welz
FOR FACULTY USE ONLY:
Did essay fulfill SCC competency? _____ YES _____ NO _____ PARTIALLY
Did essay fulfill event guidelines? _____ YES _____ NO _____ PARTIALLY
