Teaching Economics: Scarcity

   Here is a link to the class's PowerPoint Presentation on teaching economics. 

   Here is a link to my Thing-link on teaching scarcity in economics. 
 
        Students may think that learning about economics is confusing or boring. However, there are so many different ways teachers can make learning economics into an engaging activity that students will remember forever. There are different sections in economy such as microeconomics and macroeconomics. Economy influences people's daily lives in many different ways and students may not even realize. As a teacher it is important for students to be aware of how the economy effects them.
      I was assigned to teach about Scarcity. Scarcity is having a small amount of something needed. While researching I found many different ways I can teach scarcity to young children all the way to high school students. However, one way to teach scarcity really stuck out to me and I would definitely use it in my future classroom. This engaging activity includes students portraying scarcity in the real world. 
The activity that really stuck out to me for younger grades is as followed: 

- teach the differences between necessities and wants
- explain what producers and consumers are
- students will get to chose one lollipop from a bag one by one
- students will then raise their hand if they did not get their first choice in flavor
- students will see the people who got to chose towards the end did not get their first choice
- they will realize as more and more people are choosing an item the less there is to choose from

The activity that stuck out to me teaching older level students is: 

--Divide the students into 2 groups.

-Ask one group of students to arrange the cups so that everyone has one.

-Ask the other group of students to make enough kool-aid so that everyone gets a cup. Do not specify whether or not the cups should be full.

-.Instruct students that one group is not allowed to communicate with the other.Students will soon realize that 1/2 gallon of kool-aid is not going to be enough for everyone to get a full glass of kool-aid.

When students come to you with this problem, instruct them that they must now figure out a solution without addressing the other members of the class.

- There are two options. Either students each get a very small cup of kool-aid or a full gallon is made but is watered down so that each student gets a full cup.

When students decide on a solution and pass it out, the other students may complain or be shocked by what they were given.

- Explain to students that an issue of scarcity or a lack of resources has just been dealt with. Further explain that this is similar to the way that heads of household and government sometimes deal with scarcity

I would also show this video on Scarcity to engage my class:

Once I am finished teaching scarcity I can have my students make a song or rap about it like these students did in this video: