Consumers
The effect that consumer and
financial decisions can have on the individual, the broader community and the
environment
1. exploring how a decision to buy an item affects the family, for example: ‘Did the family have to put off buying another item to have this one?’
2. investigating whether buying at the local supermarket helps the local community
3. considering if their actions have an effect on the environment, for example does choosing to use recyclable shopping bags have an effect on the natural environment?
4. investigating questions such as ‘Does what my family buys in the supermarket affect what businesses might sell or produce?’
1. exploring how a decision to buy an item affects the family, for example: ‘Did the family have to put off buying another item to have this one?’
2. investigating whether buying at the local supermarket helps the local community
3. considering if their actions have an effect on the environment, for example does choosing to use recyclable shopping bags have an effect on the natural environment?
4. investigating questions such as ‘Does what my family buys in the supermarket affect what businesses might sell or produce?’
Game of Loans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IernVl_-RQY |
Loan SharksOne of the problems of consumer and financial decisions is that of Loan Sharks.
Money Smart website has some calculators for students to use to work out the benefits of saving vs credit card and vs using the various Loan Sharks. The ABC Four corners program covered this in one of their programs |
Cheap, Cheap
This is a series of lessons that use the Moneysmart activities blended with some Natural Math strategies.
Students look at percentages when out shopping and try work out the best buy. I have incorporated a problem solving activity where students need to work out whether they should save, use credit or a payday loan. |
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Decision Making
Introduce the concept of opportunity cost: Opportunity cost is a term used to mean the cost of something in terms of opportunity missed. For example, if a city decides to build a school on some vacant land, the opportunity cost is the other things that might have been done with that same land instead.
Provide students with a business scenario. Below is one example from the useful links page which may provide opportunities for students to investigate the way businesses choose the way they provide goods and services.
Introduce the concept of opportunity cost: Opportunity cost is a term used to mean the cost of something in terms of opportunity missed. For example, if a city decides to build a school on some vacant land, the opportunity cost is the other things that might have been done with that same land instead.
Provide students with a business scenario. Below is one example from the useful links page which may provide opportunities for students to investigate the way businesses choose the way they provide goods and services.
This interactive game asks students to compare the benefits of three proposals: building a swimming pool, toy factory or parklands. Students must investigate the proposals, gather facts and opinions from locals at a council meeting, in the library, at the shopping mall and on talkback radio. The students are prompted to record all of the information on an easy to use template.
Literacy link - Persuasive texts. Students are given a pre-formatted letter to write into and print.
Literacy link - Persuasive texts. Students are given a pre-formatted letter to write into and print.
Carbon Kids
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These units of work link directly to both Science and Economics. I have also used them as a literacy resource.
http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Education/Teachers/Classroom-activities/CarbonKids/CarbonKids-Resource.aspx#aCKUnits This link will take you to 1. SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FOR ALL; Resource 10.4 looks at various forms of energy ie coal, petroleum, solar, wind, tidal, wave, biomass, hydro, geo-thermal and nuclear, and asks students how to make decisions about which to utilise and economic benefits/disadvantages. 2. CARBON CHEMISTRY: pp15-17, students are asked consider consequences of taking action and not taking action on reducing CO2 emissions 3. BIODIVERSITY: CASE STUDY: Australian Platypus.....consequences of extinction of the species. 4. AGRICULTURE IN A CHANGING CLIMATE: Asks students how to make decisions about the increasing global demand for food. |
Moneysmart activitiesIn this unit students will investigate the financial and non-financial costs of becoming a pet owner. They will consider other factors such as ethical considerations and the external factors that influence the choice of pet.
Students will make connections between equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages, and then use percentages to calculate discounts on expenditure necessary for pet ownership. They will examine national data on pet ownership and the costs involved, and construct a graph. Students will explore different pet enclosures in terms of area and perimeter, using correct units. They will construct simple prisms from nets to model different enclosures. At the end of this unit, students will discuss keeping chickens at school and selling their eggs as a way to raise money. They will design an enclosure for chickens using their knowledge of area and perimeter. Students will evaluate the financial and ethical considerations of keeping chickens for this purpose.
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Comparing goodsThis is a web page providing reviews of various grocery products and results of taste comparison tests. It covers sausages, bread, liquid breakfasts, breakfast cereals, Christmas puddings, cake mix, frozen fish and salad dressing as well as looking at Stevia sugar substitute and the major steps beef goes through from the farm to the consumer. The resource includes sections on animal welfare in abattoirs, the provenance of beef and sustainable beef farming and discusses naturally occurring sugars and the difference between soluble and insoluble fibre. The resource is provided by Choice, an independent Australian consumer advocacy group, and includes links to other sources of useful information.
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Cool Australia promises to make learning about our natural world exciting while making the teacher’s role easier. We bring sustainability into the heart of the curriculum by incorporating themes such as Energy, Water, Waste and Biodiversity into learning activities and units of work across the entire curriculum.Cool Australia empowers students to construct their own vision of a positive future. Cool Australia is for all teachers especially those who thought that sustainability was not in their brief or was too big to tackle
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Food labelling
A simple presentation on how advertisers use a few tricks to influence decisions by families.
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A checklist for reading labels
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Some questions to give students to critically analyse advertising.
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Use this storyboard to help students write their own commercials.
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