ActivityMonday, August 27, 2012

Directions

Get out a sheet of paper and something to write with

I will give you a prompt and you will list a few things on your paper

VACATION!

You are going on vacation. Where you are going will be hot during the day and cold during the night. List the four most IMPORTANT things that you would pack in the car/suitcase.

OOPS!

You begin packing and realize...

Only two things will fit in the car/suitcase. You must now cross two things off your list that you will not be taking.

Opportunity Cost

Opportunity cost is the term for the value of something given up in order to purse something else. It is “the next best thing they would have chosen.”

Trade-offs

Having to choose one thing over another.

Maybe you were planning on taking a favorite baseball glove and a football.

When you had to cross something off, you chose to cross off the football. That was the trade-off for being able to keep the baseball glove.

Maybe you chose to keep a book instead of the glave. The tradeoff is that you may want to go out if the weather is nice, but now you can’t.

ECONOMICS

What is it?

ECONOMICS

The idea of economics is all about MAKING CHOICES

There are two principles:

We ALL make Choices

Choices have consequences

Making Choices

Next, write down a list of choices you have made.

Examples:

What to eat for breakfast

How to get to school

Clothes

Consequences

For each of the choices you made, what were the consequences?

You skipped breakfast instead of eating a bagel.

You were hungry until lunch

Drove to school rather than take the bus

Have to pay for gas

Got to sleep in

Why those choices?

You skipped breakfast because there was nothing to eat

This is called SCARCITY

Because of unlimited human wants/needs and limited goods, we all experience the problem of scarcity

Needs Vs. Wants

Needs - Essential for survival

Wants - Things that are nice, but you can live without

Needs

Make a list of what you would consider needs.

Needs

Typically, the list of needs are;

Air

Water

Food

Shelter

Clothing

Needs

What kind of food do we need?

Porterhouse with A1, sides of corn on the cob with creamy mashed potatoes?

Anything with calories/nutrients?

Needs

What kinds of clothing do we truly need?

Ambercrombie & Fitch?

American Eagle?

Anything to protect you from the elements?

Anything to protect your feet from the rocks and sticks?

At home

Make a list of items you have in your home.

List them as either wants or needs

You have only a minute or two

Discussion

What do we have for needs?

What about wants?

Vacation #2

I want you to list three places that you can think of that would not have air.

Vacation #2

Provide a list of things you would need in order to live in this place we have chosen.

What do you need to live here?

What might you want in order to live there?

No Water

Write down 2 places where we might find a lack of water.

Choose 1

Plan as if you were to live there for a year. What would you need?

What would you want?