Whiteboard Challenge - Drawing UK GDP

Here’s a simple lesson activity which might get students thinking about the UK recession in the context of the longer-term performance of the economy. It might add a bit of spicy competition to the start of a lesson too..

Here is a JPG image containing a blank chart for illustrating what has happened to the value of UK GDP since 1988. Well, its not quite blank. The two black dots show the start and end points for UK GDP in 1988 (start) and 2009 (end). The question is - what has happened to the business cycle (as measured by the movement in GDP)?

Put the blank chart up on the IWB and ask students/table groups to come up and draw what they think the GDP line looks like. Different colours, or lines with an initial on, should make it easy to compare and contrast. Better still, students might be expected to explain the shape of their GDP lines as they draw them.

Then paste the solution (answer) chart underneath the drawn lines. Which student/group best matched what actually happened? The GDP line essentially shows a recession in 1990/1991, followed by a long period of sustained, steady growth until the economy hit the buffers.

Here are the images:

Blank GDP chart

Solution GDP Chart