FACS:Economics Resources in a Paper Bag (Econ)

Background for Teachers

In order to have enough time for each group to demonstrate their situations, allow about 10 minutes for the introduction on types of resources, 6-8 minutes to work on presentations, and 2-3 minutes for each group to demonstrate their activities. This lesson uses up every minute in class; make sure to leave time for the students to show their activities, which is their favorite part. If it is a large class, your may make the groups larger. At the end of class they should bring the bags to you and you can refill them in-between classes.

Intended Learning Outcomes

The students will understand the 3 main economic resources-human, capitol, and natural and how they are used to produce goods and services.

Instructional Procedures

Show the overhead of the words Capitol, Natural, and Human and have students think of examples of each type of resource: Human - people using their brains or muscles; Capitol - money or machinery; Natural - anything that is not man-made.

They may need an example situation of giving a dog a bath. Human resources used - a person washing the dog, people who made the water hose, people who work at the water district; Natural - water, sunshine, dog, fur, natural chemicals in the shampoo, cotton towel; and Capitol - money to buy the dog, to pay for the water, shampoo, and the towel.

Divide the class into groups of 4-5 and give each group a paper bag. In each bag is a piece of candy for each student in the group, and a small paper telling them what their situation is and how to demonstrate the resources being used. Give the class about 10 minutes to do the activity. Then each group will come up one at a time to show the class what their situation is and the resources being used using the method described on their paper. If their method was to find pictures of the resources used to make a public park, they will come up and put their pictures on the board and tell what kind of resources they are. If they had to act out going to a theme park, they may show buying tickets, going on a ride, and having lunch. Another group could draw a picture of someone hunting, the deer, the truck, trees, and lake.

Strategies for Diverse Learners

When putting students in groups, make sure to put a struggling student in a group with a helper student. Put different personalities and abilities in the same group. Students who don't speak English well may need vocabulary words explained to them one-on-one. Make sure one student does not dominate a group and each student has a chance to contribute. This is a good activity for slow learners to make a contribution by finding pictures, drawing, or taking part in a dramatization.

Extensions

This class could possibly be a 2-day lesson. The first day could be spent learning about the different types of resources and discussing examples, and the second day could be used to give out the paper bags and do the activity. Also the paper bag format can be used for other lessons. Divide them into groups and put the instructions for the lesson in the paper bag.

Assessment Plan

By watching the activity and seeing that each group has included in their presentation examples of each of the three economic resources and that they have correctly identified what type of resource they are.

Bibliography

FACS TLC resources