Proficiency Statement and Indicators Students should be able to:
Describe how people depend on each other to supply economic goods and services.
Explain how natural, human, and capital resources are used to produce goods and services.
Identify people who provide goods and services to the community (e.g.,school workers,
firefighters, police officers, doctors, factory workers,storekeepers, farmers, homemakers, etc.).
Explain why people specialize in different jobs.
Explain how people earn and use their income.
Identify people who are producers, consumers, and both producers and consumers.
Give examples of how scarcity requires people to make choices about using goods,
services, and resources. (Since resources, goods, and services are scarce, people
must make decisions about what they will buy, or not buy, and what they will produce.)
Identify the opportunity cost of a choice. (Opportunity cost is the most valuable
alternative a person has to give up to get something he or she wants).
Recognize groups and people who make personal sacrifices for the benefit of others.
Sample Student Activities Students might:
Identify the productive resources used to produce specific goods and
services.Participate in a job fair where community members discuss their jobs.
Establish a classroom mini-economy (see Resources, Page 217).
Mount pictures from newspapers and magazines showing people earning income
in many different ways. Work in small groups, using ad sections from newspapers to
categorize ways people might spend money.
Construct a pictorial graph dividing people into 3 categories: producers, consumers,
and both producers and consumers.
Plan a trip or vacation. Work in cooperative groups to agree on and prioritize a
limited number of items to take.
Organize a classroom store. Identify the opportunity cost of consumer choices.
Make awards to present to community and school workers for outstanding service
(These could be student-made certificates, badges, buttons, or other gifts).
