I Want, I Need

Summary

Students will compare personal wants and needs with the wants and needs of communities.

Materials

• Historic photographs: Salt Lake City Flood (pdf)
• Handouts: "Town of Brian Head/Brigham City" (pdf) and "Clinton City/Coalville City" (pdf)
• Optional handouts: Excerpts from ULCT Powers and Duties Handbook on "General Duties" (pdf) and "Water, Sewer" (pdf)
• Phone book

Background for Teachers

Enduring Understanding

Each Utah municipality must decide how to meet the needs of their citizens. Government services vary among municipalities.

Essential Questions

In what ways do municipalities respond to the wants and needs of a community?

What factors influence the ways that communities meet their needs?

Objectives

Students will discuss the community's role in meeting the wants and needs of citizens and learn ways in which various municipalities meet these needs through elected officials and municipal services.

Instructional Procedures

Setting the Stage: Wants and Needs

• Remind students of floods and other natural disasters locally and around the world.
• Display photographs of the Salt Lake City flood (pdf).
• Explain that Salt Lake City had a flood in 1983. The city turned several streets, including State Street, into a river to avoid flooding homes and businesses.
• Discuss how natural disasters cause people to lose property and things that are valuable to them.
• Divide the class in half.
• One side of the class will be asked to consider a situation where everything was taken away from them and from their families. Ask students to make a list of items they need to get back to regular life.
• Ask the other side of the class to consider what it would be like if they could get anything they want for their birthday. Have students make their lists.
• Compare and contrast students' lists. Discuss the difference between wants and needs. Ask students: Why can't you have everything that you have written on both the lists? Discuss the issue of limited financial resources and prioritizing.
• Combine lists from both sides of the room. As a class, have students prioritize the lists of wants and needs. List items in the order of highest priority.
• Display the list and discuss the results.
• Explain that just like families must prioritize their needs to meet a limited budget, city officials must make decisions about the ways they handle the needs of citizens. Why might cities be unable to meet all the wants and needs of the citizens? (Not enough money, not enough manpower, not everyone agrees with the decision.)

Activity: Some Services are Provided by Municipalities

• Explain that most municipalities provide some services for citizens. Municipalities must pay for the services that they provide through taxes paid by residents and businesses.
• Distribute the handouts: "Town of Brian Head/Brigham City" (pdf) and "Clinton City/Coalville City." (pdf) Ask students to look down to the city official list and read the titles of each official.
• Ask students to guess what service the listed official performs.
• Ask students to compare and contrast the services offered by each community. Remind them to look for clues that might explain why there are differences in services.
• Discuss the factors that might influence the number of services provided by each community. (Population, taxes, tourist income, weather, etc.)

Activity: Find Out What Services are Offered in Your Municipality

• Ask students to brainstorm their community's needs.
• Ask students how they might discover what services are actually provided by their community? (Brainstorm resources.)
• Provide phone books for students. Find the government pages. (These pages are usually grouped together, often in the front of the phone book.)
• Ask students to prepare interview questions for a call to the city offices.
• Practice making a professional phone call. Prepare students for answering machines. Ask students to prepare a telephone response sheet with their name, school, and phone number available in case they need to leave a message for a return call.
• Invite a student to call the city office and inquire about services offered by the community.
• Identify unmet needs in the community. Decide which government official might oversee this need. Create a plan where these needs might be met.

Extensions

Activity: Class Needs

• Brainstorm classroom needs. Identify the services needed to meet these needs and elect classroom officials to oversee the needed services.

ULCT Documents on City Services

Included in this lesson are several pages from ULCT documents that discuss city responsibilities for utilities and other services. You may use these documents to add to the lesson in a way that fits the age and interest of your students.

Bibliography

This lesson plan is part of the Utah League of Cities and Towns This Must be Utah! A Teacher's Guide to Utah Cities and Towns

• Author: Sheri Sohm
• Editor: Sydney Fonnesbeck , Director of Training
  Utah League of Cities and Towns