Lesson 1 Part 2 Teach

Studying economics can help you in three ways. You can be a good student and pass tests if you study. You will learn things that you can use someday in your job or in your home. And you will learn things that you can use today.

You will learn about buyers and how they make choices. You will learn about workers and how they make products like clock radios, cheeseburgers, and even school books. You will learn about why people make trades using things like markets, prices, and money. You will even learn about economic problems that can come up and how the government can solve those problems.

But it all begins with choices. Can you imagine flying in a spaceship to a faraway planet? Imagine that your spaceship has a special machine that can make anything. If you walk up and say that you want ice cream, the machine makes ice cream. If you say that you want a hat, the machine makes a hat. Because of this machine, you can have anything that you want. You do not have to make choices. You do not have to pick one thing and give another thing up.

This is just imagination, though. Real life is not like that. There is no special machine to give you whatever you want. Has anyone ever said to you, "You cannot have everything you want"? It is true. You cannot have everything you want. So, you have to make choices. You pick some things and you give other things up. One of the things that economics studies is how you and other people make these choices.

There are many things that you want. You want to have good times with your family and friends. You want to breathe clean air. You want a good night's sleep every day. These are examples of wants that you can have for free. But you know that not everything you want is free. To get some of the things that you want, you have to trade something back. There are some important words that you need to learn.

Economic wants are things you wish for. Goods are things that you can touch and that meet your economic wants. When you trade for goods, you get back something that you can take away. Examples of goods are shoes, school desks, cars, and computers. Services are actions that meet your economic wants. When you trade for services, someone else does something for you. Examples of services are TV shows, baby-sitting, car washes, and trash pick-up.

You can meet your economic wants by trading for goods and services. But remember, you probably have many things you want. You probably want more things than you can have. So, you have to make choices about which goods and services you will trade for and which you will give up. How you and other people make these kinds of choices is what economics studies.

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Teacher's Notes

Making choices should be very familiar to students. Provide examples of choices that you made that day as well as choices that you know students typically make, such as what clothes to wear, what to eat for breakfast, what TV show to watch, and so on.

Emphasize the definitions of economic wants, goods, and services. Ask the students for examples to get a sense of student understanding of the difference between goods and services.

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