SURVIVAL: an introduction to economic concepts For the past few years I have used the following activity to introduce my Junior Cycle students to some key economic concepts. I have developed this activity based on something I came across online many years ago. I have refined it over time and have tried to make it accessible for Junior Cycle students. In the past I’ve generally used this activity at the beginning of 3rd year, but this year I used it with my 1st year class. They enjoyed it immensely and seemed to understand both the concepts and the aim of the activity. This is very much a ‘doing’ activity and it will require students to move freely around the room in order to interact with each other and with the materials provided. It will not be a quiet class, but it a very engaging class which opens many possibilities for the effective teaching of economics. Just close the door and let them have fun with it! They will enjoy the activity and they should also learn a lot. The entire activity can be completed in a double class, or perhaps more ideally, two single classes. This activity really ties in with the definition of economics (Strand 3) and explores the choices people make when faced with scarce resources (LO 3.1, 3.2). It also resonates with some Strand 1 concepts including needs and wants (LO 1.1). I provide students with a 1 page handout and read through it with them at the beginning of the lesson. It reads as follows: OPENING SCENARIO: The entire class group has been lost on an Arctic island with little hope of rescue. THE OBJECTIVE IS SURVIVAL. In order to survive, each person must produce ONE FISH, ONE IGLOO and ONE PONCHO. The handout also contains clear instructions on how to produce each of the items required for survival. All items are made from paper or light card. (see photo below) The Fish: represents the need for food. I have created a stencil for this item, which I provide to students and they are allowed to trace it. The fish must be produced on a paper of a specific colour and the fish eye must be a different colour. You will need to instruct the students during the initial briefing about which colours to use for each item. This very much depends on what’s available to you.
The Poncho: represents the need for clothing. This must be measured and cut out as per the instructions on the handout. Initially this item required stapling, but I have since done away with this aspect and I allow students to make it as a one-piece item. The Igloo: represents the need for shelter. This needs to be measured and cut out as per instructions on the handout. Students must draw lines to represent blocks of ice. Before they begin the activity, I generally show the students examples of these items (which I have prepared). These templates are made to scale and will provide students with a better understanding of what is required. It is very important to emphasise to students that the reproduction of these items must be exact in every detail. Any items which do not meet the specifications will not count towards survival. Students must only use the material provided by you at the beginning of the activity. They should all be placed together on a desk. For a class of 25 students you will need to provide the following materials / resources to students: RESOURCES REQUIRED: 8 – 10 A4 sheets of light green* paper (for the fish). The stencil size allows for 3 or 4 fish per sheet. 8– 10 A4 sheets of yellow* paper (for the poncho). 8- 10 A4 sheets of white paper (for the igloo). 1 A4 sheet of blue* paper (for the fish eye). 6 or 7 pencils. 3 rulers. 2 compasses (from geometry sets). 1 glue stick. This is used to glue to eye to the fish. The lid of the glue can be used as a stencil, or you can provide a small coin. 4 – 6 pairs of scissors. *You can use whatever colours you have available, but it is important to try use different colours for each item. This helps ensure that these resources are scarce and can’t be used interchangeably. Once you have read through the instructions and shown the templates to the students give those 20 minutes to complete the task. Emphasise again that in order to survive it is necessary for each student to have one fish, one poncho and one igloo at the end of the allocated time. DEVELOPMENT: You will probably find that the activity descends into a free-for-all. Some students will grab many of the resources while others may have none at all. After a while students may ask if they can work together. This is allowed, though it is probably best just to tell students that they are allowed to work however they wish just so long as they have the required items at the end of the activity. You may also notice some evidence of barter and /or theft. There may also be a small number of students who are short on resources and simply sit in their seats for the duration. Unless absolutely necessary just ignore all of this and let the activity develop and conclude. Try just to stand back and observe the activity as the students complete their work. Once the 20 minutes has elapsed the students must cease all work. Ask any students who have all 3 of the required items to come forward. Check that the items meet the requirements and make note of the number of survivors from the group. My experience suggests it is likely to be a small number. At this point it’s important to collect all of the materials, including unused paper and any work in progress. It is also necessary to gather up all completed fish, ponchos and igloos which have not been brought forward by the ‘survivors’. It is very important that students do not retain any materials or completed items. This is because the activity will be repeated after a short period of reflection and discussion. TIMEFRAME (35 - 40 minutes) Introduction: 5 mins – read the handout and explain the activity. Don’t inform the students that it is related to economics. Making the items: 20 minutes – allow time for students to produce food, clothing and shelter as required. Clean up: 5 minutes – Gather all completed resources, count survivors, collect all other resources and materials. Reflection and discussion: 5 minutes - Discuss the activity with the students. Try to tease out what worked well and what didn’t. Discuss how the students could increase the survival rate. Ideally the students will develop a strategy for this. This is likely to involve greater levels of teamwork and greater sharing of resources. For example the students may suggest creating three groups and perhaps dividing the resources according to the requirements of each. From experience, the igloos tend to be the most difficult and slowest item to make. The ponchos are generally the quickest. Once a strategy has been developed, allow the students to repeat the activity. This can be completed in the next class, or the second half of a double class. Hopefully they will work more co-operatively and more efficiently. It is almost certain that there will be a greater number of survivors second time round. Ideally the entire group will survive, with time to spare. There is also likely to be increased specialisation of labour. LINKS TO THE SPECIFICATION: In subsequent classes you can introduce the definition of economics and ask the students to consider how the survival activity relates to this definition. They will generally identify that they had needs, that their resources were limited and that they had to make choices about how best to allocate those resources. You can also use it to illustrate the factors of production: Land = Fish / Ice (paper) etc. Labour = the students (workers) Capital = Scissors, compass, ruler (tools and equipment) Enterprise = the students will provide this insofar as they will combine land, labour and capital in order to produce good which satisfy their needs. With an enthusiastic class you could also examine their actions and choices in greater depth. For example: Who provided and allocated all of the resources? Does this represent a centrally planned or free market approach? What happens to any surplus individual items during the first attempt at the activity? For instance, some students may have completed only 1 or 2 of the required items at the end of the activity. If these individual items are combined it will be possible for some extra students to survive. If so, how will this be decided? This deals with allocation of finished goods. If the group produces surplus items or has the capacity to do so in round 2, you could explore the possibilities associated with this situation. For example, if there was another Island nearby, it may be possible for surplus resources to be exported and exchanged for additional goods which will satisfy more needs and wants. I use this activity because it really helps students to get a feel for the key concepts of economics. It also assists my teaching….and both the students and I always enjoy doing it.
Here is a copy of my 1st Year February exam. This was my first attempt at setting a 'significant' exam for this course and students had 90 minutes to complete the assessment. It was a real challenge to work out both the content and the timing and I had to reassure students that I would bear that in mind when correcting their work. The fact that it was a common level exam for a mixed ability class added to my difficulties and there is always a balance to be drawn between challenging the most able students, while also being fair those with less ability. That balance applies not only to the content, but also to the timing of the assessment. In the end I added a crossword to the exam and told students to attempt this activity only after all other questions had been completed. I took the crossword from the student activity book, but have not included it here.
At this point I can say that most students completed all questions and activities in the 90 minute timeframe. A few students did not get the crossword completed, so I did not include that when scoring the assessment. All in all, the material included here could be completed by most students in 60 minutes. I tried to create an assessment which had a 'storyline' running through it... though on reflection, maybe this worked against students with poor literacy skills? I also attempted to assess a range of knowledge, understanding, skill and values. As I said at the outset, this was my first attempt, I'm sure there are improvements to be made in the future, but as with everything associated with this new specification it's a work in progress. I hope by sharing it with teachers it will provide you with some food for thought.
Click here to download a copy of the test
Co-author of Time for Business Joe Stafford teaches Junior Cycle Business Studies in a mixed ability setting in a co-educational school with four 40 minute classes per week. He is currently sharing his experiences of teaching the new Junior Cycle Business Studies specification for the first time. Have you ever played Bingo? You may have played it at your local bingo hall or have even played Telly Bingo from the National Lottery. However, did you know that playing Bingo with students is an excellent way to develop their subject-specific vocabulary and improve their oral and written literacy? Given the huge amount of new terms that students encounter when they begin to study Business Studies, it can be a great way to learn new words in a fun way. Teachers can create Bingo cards using online tools such as My Free Bingo Cards. Teacher bingo calling cards are created as well as student cards. Students will start with a grid filled with terms. The game can then be played in a variety of ways:
Below are links to some pre-generated bingo cards for chapters in 'Time for Business'. When you click on the links below, select the 'Print 30 Free Cards' link. If you plan on playing Bingo with students each year, you might consider laminating the student cards so they can be reused in the future. Chapter 1: Making the most of your resources Chapter 2: Household Income Chapter 3: Household Expenditure Chapter 4: Financial Planning for Your Future Chapter 5: Household Budgets Chapter 6: Recording Income and Expenditure Business Studies Blog
Chapter 2 : Household Income Having completed the chapter on ‘resources’ I began to teach my students about the complementary topics of household income and household expenditure. From a teacher perspective this is very familiar material, but I used the anticipation exercises to establish the level of prior knowledge amongst my students. At the outset they had a relatively limited appreciation of the sources of household income, but this is hardly surprising given their age. Inevitably most students cited examples based on their personal or household circumstances. We discussed a range of income sources for households, including employment income, pensions and other social protection payments. The only element of controversy in our discussion was the suggestion (by some students) that social protection payments should not be a long term source of household income and reliance on this form of income should not be a lifestyle choice. I assumed this was a case of students repeating some of the things they have heard at home and I used the opportunity to focus student’s thoughts on the purpose of taxation and the role of government in income redistribution. I only dealt with this issue at a very simple and superficial level and some students showed greater levels of engagement with the discussion than others. Nonetheless, it was interesting to hear how clearly and passionately they were able to express their views. Overall, I was happy with the debate and accepted it was really just an opportunity for sowing seeds which can hopefully be harvested in future (Strand 3) discussions. On this occasion I felt however that the blending involved in these topics was too much of a detour for my students so I returned to the core topic of household income. In hindsight perhaps it was just too much of a detour for ME personally and maybe I should have allowed the discussion to explore those other avenues. I know I was concerned about the time involved and worried that we would drift too far from the lesson objectives. After all ‘time’ is a scarce resource, and I’m not exactly sure how best to use it on this first encounter with the new specification. The whole issue of time allocation has been a concern of mine ever since I started to write the textbook, but I’ll save that issue for a separate blog piece in the very near future. Benefit in kind income proved to be a little confusing for some students while others found the calculation of wages to be problematic. This section illustrated perfectly the challenges associated with teaching a mixed ability group and there was a huge variation in the ability of my students to deal with calculations. For this reason it may be advisable to adopt a step by step approach to these questions and have some extra material available for those students who are particularly adept at numeracy. Students understood the difference between statutory and voluntary deductions and were able to provide relevant examples of both. The distinction between disposable and discretionary income was not so easily understood, and on reflection I feel I could have explained it more clearly first time round. When the end of chapter self-assessment highlighted this confusion, I made a point of revisiting the topic, thankfully with more success. The family income plans (in the student activity book) were completed with little difficulty and these are important steps in the household budgeting process (see Time for Business chapter 5). Co-author of Time for Business, Joe Stafford has previously written about teaching learning outcome 1.1. In this latest blog post he discusses assessment and reflection.
Assessment and Reflection. As already indicated in a previous blog post I made use of the traffic light self-assessment activity at the end of the Student Activity Book chapter and it was a useful and worthwhile exercise for both myself and the students. Many students were familiar with this type of formative assessment and they had no difficulty carrying out the task. There were no red lights amongst the group, which was pleasing! The most common orange lights related to Statement 7: I am able to make choices to make the best use of resources, and also Statement 9: I am able to understand the effect of my use of resources on other people’s lives. Based on the feedback I briefly revisited these issues and was able to clarify most of the misunderstanding through the use of further examples. I am also conscious that future chapters should improve understanding and abilities in these areas. Yet more layering! Students also reviewed the questions in the anticipation guide and there were some changes of opinion which reflected increased knowledge and understanding. Since this was my first interaction with the new teaching resources I felt it was necessary to try everything out. This was especially true of the mind map for which an exemplar is provided on page 7 of the activity book. For subsequent chapters, students are encouraged to create their own mind maps, so I think it’s a good idea to look at the exemplar in this chapter. My co-author, Siobhan O'Sullivan has previously written a blog post which shows the evolution of the mind-map for Chapter 1. This would be really useful to demonstrate to students how a mind map can be constructed. Mind maps can be drawn by hand or by making use of the websites listed on pg. xix of the Teacher Resource Book (TRB). Creating effective mind maps is a skill and takes time to develop and perfect; it won’t necessarily suit all students or teachers but some will find it very beneficial. At least half of my students had created mind maps in primary school and were familiar with the process. I also utilised the 'end of chapter reflection' on P9 of the Activity Book. If you intend to use this regularly there is a photocopiable template in Appendix 2 of the TRB. The only formative assessment tool which I didn’t make use of on this occasion was the exit ticket. That I will happily save for a rainy day! All in all I spent 7 class periods on the chapter and maybe that was a little too long. Perhaps it could have been quicker if we had textbooks available from the outset and I hadn't been so willing to listen to students…. but I assumed that this was necessary if honouring my commitment to student-centred lessons. Perhaps only time will tell if this was the right thing to do. Co-author of Time for Business Joe Stafford teaches Junior Cycle Business Studies in a mixed ability setting in a co-educational school with four 40 minute classes per week. In his previous blog post, co-author of Time for Business Joe Stafford reflects on his experience of teaching Learning Outcome 1.1 for the first time. In this post, Joe shares how students are engaging with the new material, how they are already linking to material from Strand 3 and how many students didn't realise that they get a free e-book with the hard copy of the textbook.
Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees! The last section of Chapter 1 deals with financial resources and the fact that “money doesn’t grow on trees”. Students offered great explanations of what that expression means and the discussions which followed gave rise to interesting questions, such as “Why doesn't the government just print lots of extra money?” I encouraged students to offer suggestions for this and some excellent answers were offered which related to money losing its value, etc. One student said that prices would probably rise, but she didn’t have the vocabulary to use the term ‘inflation’. I introduced the term and provided a very brief and simple explanation. Hopefully this will serve us well in Strand 3. The concepts of supply and demand also originated from students, although again they didn’t all have the understanding or vocabulary to deal with it in anything more than a very simple way. We used an example of concert tickets or the upcoming All Ireland Final to illustrate what happened when something we want is in strong demand but supply is strictly limited. This is also Strand 3 material and highlights how it’s almost impossible to avoid a blended approach to this new specification. I certainly had no intention when planning the lesson of introducing the concepts of supply and demand, but this accidental blending was unavoidable as the issue was raised by students. This will provide more opportunities for layering as we progress through the learning outcomes. When addressing the question of where future income may come from, students managed to list all of the familiar sources including wages, income from benefits, pension and student grants. One student expressed strong views on the receipt of benefits as an ongoing source of income. We steered clear of a full blown debate on this issue, but it will surely be revisited in subsequent chapters dealing with household income and the purpose of taxation. Again, it was interesting to see how students engaged with the material and how it impacted on their thought processes. Textbooks, Homework…and Abba! I should mention that students didn’t have textbooks for the first couple of lessons. I therefore posed a series of questions to kick start the discussion and to scaffold student learning. I used the whiteboard and the Edco Digital site to display some segments of the textbook to the whole class, particularly the definitions, images and textbook activities, but we didn’t read through the chapter in its entirety. The benefit of this was that there was a lot of discussion and debate amongst the class group and I really think this helped with student engagement. I also used the whiteboard to record the key points made by students during discussions. I tended to set a research task for homework to set the scene for the following lesson. Over the course of a week, the vast majority of students managed to get copies of text and activity books. At this stage I then assigned reading homework to ensure students had to engage with the text and revise material covered in class in previous lessons, for example, I asked the students to find some songs or quotations related to money. They really enjoyed this and found some very interesting quotations dealing with money, wealth and value, etc. Students were more than happy to read them out in class and we discussed what some of them really meant. For example, “nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing” and “we buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like”. Students are now in the process of making small posters using some of the quotations and these will be displayed in the classroom. On the music side we had contributions from Jessie J (Price Tag) and Abba (Money, Money, Money). We had a bit of fun with this! As the students did not have activity books from the outset, we had to tackle the activities in a large chunk at the end of the chapter. This was useful from the point of view of revision, but in future I will definitely have students use the activity book on an ongoing basis. Having said that, I was very happy that the textbook activities kept the students engaged and provided many opportunities for individual and group work. These activities were completed in their copies or comments were added to the white board. E-books and PowerPoints. I demonstrated to students how to access the free e-version of their textbook. This meant they could leave the textbook in their locker in school and could rely on the digital version for revision and homework. Some of the students hadn’t realised that this was possible and I was glad I’d brought it to their attention - as were they! Although I had a PowerPoint presentation prepared to support the textbook material (and our PowerPoint’s will be available as a digital resource soon) I didn’t actually make use of it. The student discussions and group work seemed to me to be more in line with the spirit of the new specification. Due to the high level of student engagement I felt the PowerPoints were not required for my lessons on this topic. If using them in future I would be inclined to use them in the background or as a way of revising and summing up a topic. Co-author of Time for Business Joe Stafford teaches Junior Cycle Business Studies in a mixed ability setting in a co-educational school with four 40 minute classes per week. Starting Out:
If you read my previous blog entry 'All changed, changed utterly', you‘ll be aware of my mixed feelings about teaching the new Junior Cycle Business Studies specification. Well thankfully my worst fears were not realized and I am now reminding myself not to worry so much in future! At the outset I asked the students to complete the anticipation exercise at the beginning of the Chapter 1 Student Activity Book, find a definition for ‘resources’ and then make a list of some resources which are available to them. I am happy to report that they did this brilliantly and with great enthusiasm. We had a chat about the definition and we looked at the different versions offered by students. The interactive white board was used to record everything. In the end we focused on the key elements and common features from a variety of student definitions (“things we have”, “things we use”, “they can help us...", ”they are scarce...”, "they are useful/valuable” etc.). I had to ask a few questions to get the students thinking about what we use resources for and following a number of specific examples, one student eventually suggested “whatever your goals are”. When it came to their resources, students managed to come up with a very long list which included items under most of the main resource-type headings. They offered things like money, computers, the internet, mobile phones, trees, community centres and even ‘people’ as possible resources. Nobody specifically mentioned 'time' but when I suggested it, most agreed that it fitted our definition and should be added to the list. The students seemed happy with the idea that access to resources was more important than ownership and they also understood that knowing how to use resources was essential. Some made reference to the illustration on page 2 (fig.1.1) of Time for Business. We discussed further examples offered by students, from their experiences and their imagination. As I was keen to encourage student involvement at this early stage I was happy to stand back and listen. I was reminded (in a good way) about just how imaginative some first year minds can be! A Missed Opportunity? One area where I could have focused more attention was the impact of their use of resources on others. When teaching this topic next time, I will make a specific point of referring to it at this stage. While it was discussed in much greater detail in the subsequent ‘needs and wants’ debate, I think I missed an opportunity to broaden the discussion here. On reflection I was perhaps too focused on keeping the discussion ‘personal’ to them and neglected the obvious links to LO’s 1.9 and 3.1 which arose here. Also, when students completed the traffic light review at end of chapter, this was the most common ‘orange light’ indicated by students. Note however that chapters 15 and 40 deal with this aspect of the learning outcome in great detail, so I am not concerned that this key message will be lost, but just that I missed an opportunity to signpost it with students at this early stage. Freedom, Flexibility and Layering! If you wanted to tackle Learning Outcome (LO) 1.1 in a less linear fashion you could indeed take a detour into those other chapters, but I think it’s very important to embed the concept of personal resources with students first. Only then would I consider looking at the impact on others which arises from the students' own use of resources. Remember also that the Business Studies Specification allows for great freedom and flexibility when it comes to WHAT and HOW you teach…. it is even the case that the LO’s provided may not be exhaustive. What we as authors have tried to do with the textbook is provide teachers with a resource which covers as much relevant material as possible. Please remember though, that the material provided is neither prescriptive not exhaustive. You are encouraged to cut, expand or modify it in order to ensure it fits the context of your classroom and students and the time available. I am very aware of this ‘time’ issue already and know I will need to manage it carefully as the year unfolds. Generally speaking students had a clear understanding of the needs versus wants debate and were very engaged by it. It was a little harder for them to think about their future needs and wants, but most were able to offer realistic examples. Overall it is important for them to realise that their needs and wants will change over time and this understanding will be reinforced later when dealing with personal financial life cycles (Chapter 4). This also illustrates the importance of ‘layering’ when tackling this new Business Studies Specification. This means there are lots of situations where concepts are revisited in later chapters or Strands. This is a deliberate teaching strategy and it is designed to promote deeper understanding and recall of key concepts. Do not be afraid to teach students similar or closely related material. It is useful revision for them and will help you as the teacher to gauge their level of understanding and recall. In some cases it may also test their ability to apply existing knowledge to a new situation. This should be one of the ultimate goals for our students and suggests that deep and genuine learning has taken place. When discussing the impact of our choices and resource use on others, most students accepted that everyone should be treated fairly and resources should be divided equally. Two students expressed a different view and felt that everyone should look out for themselves and just get what they can. This generated a short (and heated) debate amongst the students and the majority view seemed to win out in the end. Financial and opportunity costs were well understood and all students were quickly able to offer other examples. We watched the Paul Pogba opportunity cost video on the Time for Business blog which students enjoyed and I think it greatly helped their understanding of the concept. Read more of my reflections of teaching the first chapter on 'Getting the most of out a valuable resource - part two'. Co-author of Time for Business Joe Stafford teaches Junior Cycle Business Studies in a mixed ability setting in a co-educational school with four 40 minute classes per week. Learning Outcome 1.1 states:
Review the personal resources available to them to realise their needs and wants and analyse the extent to which realising their needs and wants may impact on individuals and society. NOTE: As the material required to deal with this Learning Outcome is quite diverse and relates to more than one strand of the specification, we have not attempted to provide it all in a single chapter in the Time for Business textbook. As authors, we feel that using a single chapter would only allow for a narrow and superficial overview of the topic. Page xviii of the Teacher Resource Book (page 315 of the online version) provides a diagram to inform teachers which chapters contain material related to each Learning Outcome. For example, chapters 1, 15 and 16 (Strand 1) deal with individual resources and choices, chapters 3, 4 and 5 look at the issues from a household perspective, while chapter 34 (Stand 3) broadens the perspective even further to consider the economic implications of the use of resources. Once they have studied a number of related chapters, students should have a broad understanding of the term 'resources' in an economic sense and be very well prepared to deal with a wide range of questions and activities related to this learning outcome. This material can be covered at any time during the Junior Cycle and teachers have total freedom and discretion when deciding on the sequencing of Learning Outcomes and associated chapters. The guiding rule is to deal with each learning outcome at a time and in a manner which is appropriate to the context of your class. In our view, the following are the key ideas and messages for this topic:
Mind maps are an excellent tool to learn and revise new material. Students should be encouraged to create their own mind maps and make them as colourful as possible. Mind maps can be created using paper and coloured pens or using a range of free online tools and apps such as Simple Mind, Coggle or GoConqr.
The mind map below for Chapter 1, 'Making the Most of Your Resources' was created using GoConqr. Click the play icon below to use the mind map as a presentation. If you create a free account you can edit and amend this mind map and add images to make it more memorable. Better yet, ask students to create their own mind maps to show what they have learned and understood about a new topic. Why not display completed mind maps around the classroom? Co-author of Time for Business, Siobhan O'Sullivan is currently seconded from Malahide Community School as a teacher educator. She supports teachers and schools in embedding technology to enhance learning and teaching. http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/from-tayto-crisps-to-nights-in-a-travelodge-what-would-pogba-s-fee-get-you-1.2750551 The video on this page on the Irish Times website looks at spending alternatives for the €110million which Manchester United paid to Juventus for the footballer. It's light-hearted and uses 'currency' which the students are familiar with, e.g. Tayto Crisps, cars, etc. It would be a great ice-breaker and introduction to the topic of opportunity cost and should certainly help students to think of alternative uses for money. If you wish to take it to a deeper level and explore some economic theory, there is scope to look at the impact of supply and demand on price (transfer fees) and perhaps also the purchasing power of a player who reportedly earns €220,000 per week. That would buy an awful lot of Taytos, but might be subject to diminishing marginal utility! Categories All |
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