Lesson Plan : The Allocation of Scarce Resources
Teacher Name: | Huntley Brown |
Grade: | Grade 7-8 |
Subject: | Social Studies |
Topic: | How Scarce Resources are Allocated |
Content: | Marty will be able to make comparisons of different methods of allocating resources like the market system, equal shares, random selection, queing, planned systems, brute force, and most needy. Marty will be able to understand and respond to everyday questions like, "which allocation methods are best" and "how does scarce resources affect the production of goods and services". Marty will make everyday decisions using his acquired knowledge. |
Goals: | Marty will increase his social studies skills from the 5.0 grade level. Marty will be able to describe what natural, human, and capital resources that are needed to support different professions. |
Objectives: | 1- Marty will be able to compare the different methods of allocating scarce resources with 80% accuracy. 2- Marty will be able to understand and use economic terms like interdependence, specialization, goods, services, and resources with 80% accuracy. |
Materials: | -overhead projector -transparency markers -index cards with professions written on them. |
Introduction: | The students will be introduced to a list of economic terms and their definitions. Examples and non-examples of each term will be given. A classroom activity and a teacher-led discussion with questions/answers session will be used to gauge how much of the new topic the student understood. This is a new topic and therefore, no prior knowledge will be tested. However, the prior experience of the students will be used to give real-life feelings to the lesson. The key terms (with examples and non-examples) to be introduced will include: HUMAN RESOURCES- energy from people that are used to produce goods and services. An example is the factory worker that works in the factory that manufactures cars. A non-example is robots that are used to create cars are not human resources. INTERDEPENDENCE- two or more people depending on each other to complete a common task. An example is a quarterback whose team depends on him to throw accurate passes to his receivers in order to score touchdowns. A non-example is a musician that forms a one man band in which he performs all the functions of a band himself. NATURAL RESOURCES- items formed from nature that are used in the production of goods and services. For example, trees are natural resouces while cellphones are not natural resources. SERVICES- intangible products that cannot be seen or felt. For example, the police maintains law and order. A non-example is the computer factory that produces computer monitors. SPECIALIZATION- jobs in the worker focuses on one specific task like the tire repair man that only put the patches onto the tires. On the other hand, the tire man is not specializing if he patches, balance, put the wheel on/off the car, and collects the money. CAPITAL RESOURCES- man-made items used to produce goods and services like the robot that help to produce cars. On the other hand, oil is not a man-made resource. |
Development: | In order to ensure the growth and economic success of our country, the constitution has limited the role that the government plays in the economic affairs of our country. In the market economy, as established by our founding fathers, the greatest economic decisions are made, not by the government but, by private buyers and sellers. It is the government's role to provide the social and legal frameworks, maintain competition, and redistribute income. But, what does the allocation of scarce resources mean to you? For example, what if the price of oil keep rising until it can only be afforded by the very rich? Do you realize that a lot of people would suffer great hardships as a result? This scenario is not too far-fetched because research have shown that the current rate of demand for oil, the current oil supply can only last for another 40- 50 years. How would you feel in a world without oil? What would you do? What would your parents do? It is important to learn how the government regulate scarce resources, including oil, in order for supplies to last. |
Practice: | An index card will be given to each student with a job written on the back. The student will read the job aloud and say what skill they think might be needed to do the job.The other students will listen carefully and can either add or subtract from the ist of requirements. A list of the jobs are then written on a transparency and placed on the overhead projector. The jobs are listed in two columns which are not named (deliberately) and the students are asked to try to figure out why these jobs are grouped in a particular way. After the students brainstorm, they are to suggest headings for the two columns (goods and services). The students will then discuss how each profession specializes in a particular area. Students are then asked to name someone on whom they depend and someone who depends on them. |
Accommodations: | The teacher will give Marty, that processes information at a slower rate,some one-on-one attention. Since marty loves to draw, he will be asked to create a poster of how the economic terms used are connected. Crystal and Paul, who grasp new concepts more quickly, will be given two newspapers to read and then tell the teacher all the new economic terms that are found. These new terms will be written down and a dictionary used to properly define the meaning of the words. The results are then shared with the entire class. |
Checking For Understanding: | Students will be asked to answer six questions verbally to assess how much they understand. In the case of Marty, he will be asked to answer three questions verbally to assess his understanding. |
Closure: | The teacher will use re-teach and practice to repeat the goals and objectives of the lesson. Key terms will be highlighted and visuals used to help create a concept in the minds of the students. |
Evaluation: | As a summary of the lesson that was taught, a list of the economic terms will be on the overhead and each student tries to explain to me what it means. The students will be told that in the next lesson, the class will examine how the demand and supply of scarce resources affect the price and allocation of goods and services. A homework project will be given to students to take two articles to class, from a magazine, newspaper, or journal that refer to any economic terms that we discussed today. |
Teacher Reflections: | I think the class was very involved in the discussions today and great progress was made. Marty was excited because he got a chance to use his creatvity to build a poster. Whenever, he is occupied with a task that he finds interesting, he really does well. The other students realized that even though they were learning the economic terms for the first time, they had prior experiences with some form of economic situation. Overall, I think the lesson was a great success, although better assistive technology could have been used to make the lesson more interesting. |
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