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How can we use Adam Smith in the classroom?

Visit here for an ever-evolving collection of original and curated material to help you and your students think more deeply about Adam Smith.

AdamSmithWorks Lesson Plans

Original, classroom-ready activities to use with your students TODAY.

Division of Labor and the Wealth of Nations

Explore Adam Smith's pin factory, build mini sheds, and read Wealth of Nations to gain a better understanding of the division of labor.  Adjustments to this lesson plan to make it appropriate for online teaching are included.

Division of Labor and the Future of Work


The aim of this game is to "build" a production chain with sounds and actions. Each student provides a single step in the production chain. This lesson plan includes material appropriate for online teaching. 

Toilet Paper Wars!

This economics lesson is designed to be conversational and relies on materials in the home in order to accommodate parents thrust into an involuntary home learning environment as well as online educators. 

On Whom Do You Depend?


How do we decide what to do for ourselves, and when to depend on others?

What Motivates Us?

Does Adam Smith contradict himself in his two major works???


In this lesson, the students test Smith’s ideas on sympathy by playing a famous game in economics and ethics known as the Ultimatum Game. 

What Would Adam Smith Say?

About greed? About morality?

Help students apply Adam Smith's ideas to contemporary issues. This lesson plan transfers well to online teaching.

An Evening with the Wise Guys

Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, and David Hume
Over an imaginary dinner, the three discuss their views regarding economics and the relationship between Great Britain and the American colonies.

The Invisible Hand, Spontaneous Order, and a Pizza

How is an economy organized?
And what can Adam Smith- and a pizza- teach us?

Ghost Story

Newly elected American President Elizabeth Montgomery faces an economic crisis.

The night before her State of the Union address, she is visited by the ghosts of Smith and John Maynard Keynes.

Trade for the Win!

This lesson allows students to experience the benefits of trade that Adam Smith wrote about in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. 

Students participate in a trade simulation that measures the variation in benefits received (utility) in a variety of rounds from no trade to free trade.  

"The Theory of Moral Sentiments" Reading Guide

About Our Reading Guides

The AdamSmithWorks reading guides use three types of questions and highlighting to help guide readers.

Why Teach "The Theory of Moral Sentiments?"

"Smith’s system can help adolescents build a moral narrative for their developing social lives."

TMS Reading Guide: Part I

Of the Propriety of Action

TMS Reading Guide: Part II

Of Merit and Demerit; or, of the Objects of Reward and Punishment

TMS Reading Guide: Part III

Of the Foundation of our Judgments concerning our own Sentiments and Conduct, and of the Sense of Duty

TMS Reading Guide: Part IV

Of the Effect of Utility upon the Sentiment of Approbation

TMS Reading Guide: Part V

Of the Influence of Custom and Fashion upon the Sentiments of Moral Approbation and Disapprobation

TMS Reading Guide: Part VI

Of the Character of Virtue

TMS Reading Guide: Part VII

Of Systems of Moral Philosophy

An Animal That Trades Video Series

A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith with complementary questions for discussion.

AdamSmithWorks Teaching Resources

Online Teaching Tips

AdamSmithWorks Reading Groups

AdamSmithWorks is pleased to offer Reading Groups on a variety of topics related to Adam Smith. Our Reading Groups are designed to gather interested individuals interested in serious and civil discussion.

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Other Classroom Materials

Explore MORE Smith-related classroom resources- curated by the ASW team from across the Web.

"The Wealth of Nations" Reading Guide

About Our Reading Guides

WN Reading Guide: Book I

Of the Causes of Improvement in the productive Powers of Labour, and of the Order according to which its Produce is naturally distributed among the different Ranks of the People

WN Reading Guide: Book II

Of the Nature, Accumulation, and Employment of Stock

Scholarly Bibiographies

Adam Smith as Political Economist

A selection of books and journal articles to explore Adam Smith's work in political economy.


By Jon Murphy, December 12, 2019.

Adam Smith and Jurisprudence

A selection of books and journal articles to explore Adam Smith's work in jurisprudence.

December 16, 2019

Adam Smith and Spontaneous Order

A selection of books and journal articles to explore the ides of spontaneous order in Adam Smith's work.

December 16, 2019