Workers Use Other Resources

Transcription

1 Workers Use Other Resources What can I use to make things? Cognitive Objectives: Students will Define resources as things that people can use to produce goods or services. Identify human capital as a resource. Identify examples of land. Identify examples of physical capital. Recognize how capital resources help workers do their jobs faster, easier, and/or better. Required Books The Tortilla Factory Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel Arthur s Pet Business Optional Books Charlie Needs a Cloak The Giving Tree The Trees of the Dancing Goats Who Uses This? 115

2 116 Choices & Changes UNIT THREE Required Materials One valentine heart (or another figure suitable to the time of year or your students ethnic background) made from brightly colored construction paper Brightly colored construction paper, two sheets per student Scissors, one pair per student Old newspaper or magazine with pictures of physical capital. Activity 11-1, duplicated to provide one pattern per student (for best results, duplicate the pattern on sturdy paper, such as construction paper or card stock) Student Journal, pages 7-2, 7-3, 11-1, 11-2 Economics Background for Teachers Resources are things that people can use to produce goods and services. Four types of resources are human capital (skills and knowledge), land (natural resources), physical capital (goods and services that are produced for the purpose of producing something else), and entrepreneurship (innovation and risk taking). Intermediate goods are products that are used up in the production of goods and services; examples of intermediate goods include flour used in making a cake, paper used in an office, and so on. These resources and intermediate goods are the inputs used to produce a product (or output). Vocabulary Entrepreneur: A person who organizes productive resources, takes risks, and finds new ways of combining resources to produce a product. Entrepreneurship: The ability and willingness to take risks and combine resources in a new way to produce a better product. Human capital: The quality of labor resources which can be improved through investments in education, training, and health; skills and knowledge; also referred to as labor resources. Land resources: Gifts of nature; resources that are present without human intervention; also referred to as natural resources. Physical capital: Goods produced and used to produce other goods and services (capital resources.) Resources: Things that can be used to produce goods or services. Preparation Make a sample valentine heart and collect the materials listed in Required Materials above. (In this project alternative objects can be substituted to coincide with the season. Projects for fall might feature a leaf or pumpkin; for winter, a holiday tree or snowflake; for spring, a flower or May basket.)

3 Choices & Changes UNIT THREE 117 Getting Started Write the word resource on the board. Explain to the class that they have already learned about one kind of resource human capital. During the next two days, they will learn about other types of resources. Resources are things that can be used to produce goods and services. Without resources, nothing can be produced. It is because resources are limited that scarcity exists. If we had unlimited resources, we could have everything we want. Write the words land, physical capital, and entrepreneurship on the board. Tell the class that land refers to any natural resource. It can refer literally to what the word suggests farmland, for example. But the concept of land also refers to such things as oil that is used to make gasoline and water that irrigates fields. Physical capital refers to a good that is produced and used to produce other goods and services. Physical capital includes the tools, machines, equipment, and buildings used to produce goods or perform services. Hammers, computers, rulers, and pencils are all examples of physical capital. Entrepreneurship refers to a person s ability and willingness to take risks, combining other resources in a new way to produce new products or to produce existing products in a faster or better way. Have the students repeat the four types of resources: human capital, land, physical capital, and entrepreneurship. Teaching Procedures 1. Read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Ask the following questions: What type of a resource is the steam shovel? (Physical capital.) When Mike combined his human capital with Mary Anne s physical capital, what were they able to do? (They dug canals for boats, passages through mountains for trains, routes for highways, landing fields for airplanes, and deep holes for cellars of tall skyscrapers.) When gasoline shovels replaced steam shovels, what did Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne do? (Mary Anne became the furnace for the new town hall, and Mike became the janitor.) 2. Read Arthur s Pet Business. Ask the following questions: Which type of resource does Arthur demonstrate? (Entrepreneurship.) How did Arthur plan to show his parents that he could be responsible for a pet? (He would take care of other people s pets.)

4 118 Choices & Changes UNIT THREE How did Arthur and Francine let people know that he was in business? (They advertised by putting up signs.) What kind of dog was Perky supposed to be friendly or mean? (Mean.) How did Arthur take care of Perky? (He brushed her, fed her her favorite foods, and walked her.) What happened as word of Arthur s business spread? (The business grew.) Why had Perky been so mean? (She was having babies.) Did Arthur do a good job taking care of the pets? What are the advantages of running your own business and what are the disadvantages? Do you think running your own business is better than working for someone? (Accept various answers. Tell the students that they will learn more about entrepreneurs in a later class.) 3. Read The Tortilla Factory. Before reading tell the students that as you read the story, they should identify resources mentioned in the story. Divide the class into pairs for this task; tell them that the pair with the most correct answers will have a special job later in the class. After reading ask which types of resources the story mentions. (The resources are as follows: black earth land; brown hands human capital; yellow seeds land; tortilla factory physical capital; laughing people human capital; clank-clunking machinery physical capital; truck physical capital.) 4. Ask the students to discover resources around their home and school. Have them use page 11-1 in their journals to record the resources they discover. In the first column they should name the resource; in the second column they should identify the resource type (human capital, land, physical capital, or entrepreneurship). 5. Ask the students to make two valentines (or pumpkins or any other holiday item). Show the class a valentine heart you have made from construction paper. Give each student a piece of construction paper and direct each to make a valentine heart like the one you made. Tell them there are special rules for this activity: they can use only their hands, they must stand, and they cannot place the paper on their desks while working on the hearts. Challenge them to make their valentines look as much like yours as they can. Encourage neatness, but emphasize that they should work as quickly as possible. Note how long it takes most of them to complete the task. 6. When the students have finished, ask what might help them make their hearts look more like your sample. They will probably suggest using scissors and pencils; they may also mention a pattern. To follow up on this discussion, give each student more construction paper, Activity 11-1 (the pattern), scissors, and a pencil. Talk with the students about how they might use these tools to make improved

5 Choices & Changes UNIT THREE 119 versions of their valentine hearts. If any students need help, show them how to use the pencil to draw around the pattern on the construction paper, and how to use the scissors to cut out the hearts. Also, allow them to work seated at their desks this time. Again, encourage neatness and working quickly. Note how long it takes most students to complete the task. 7. When the students have completed these second efforts, ask the following questions: Which valentine looks more like the example I showed you the first or the second? (For all or most students, the second.) What physical capital helped you make the second heart? (scissors, pencils, pattern, desks.) Which heart was easier to make? (The second.) Ask someone who answers, the second, why it was easier. (They were able to use physical capital.) Which valentine did you make faster? (For most students the second will have been faster. Provide them with a comparison of the times.) Ask someone who made the second heart more quickly why it was faster. (Able to sit at desk, to use pattern, pencil, and scissors.) To review the activity, ask What were the advantages of using the pencil, pattern, scissors, and desk? (Using tools helped make the second valentine better and neater in appearance; tools also enabled students to work faster and to do the work more easily.) Emphasize the point that students use physical capital every day to do their work. 8. Help the students recall the meanings of goods and services. Ask them whether they were making a good or performing a service when they made their valentines. (Making a good.) 9. Ask students to name the physical capital they used. (Pencil, pattern, scissors, and desk.) Refer to the definition provided earlier. NOTE: If anyone names the construction paper as a capital resource, explain that paper is not a capital resource in this case because it is used up in the process of making the valentine. Capital resources do not get used up when you produce a good, at least not immediately. They are used to help produce more than one good or service. The construction paper is an intermediate good. 10. Tell the students that most workers use physical capital to help them do their work. Distribute the Student Journals and have the students look again at the workers depicted on pages 7-2 and 7-3. Review the pictures and ask the students to identify the physical capital these workers probably use. For example, a carpenter uses a saw, a barber uses a razor, and a mail carrier uses a sack. If you used Who Uses This? in Lesson 7, you can refer to it here.

6 120 Choices & Changes UNIT THREE 11. Discuss the difficulty some workers would have in trying to produce their goods or perform their services without specific capital resources. Most workers in fast food restaurants, for example, depend on one or more capital resources in their jobs. Food preparers use knives, spatulas, and mixers; cooks use grills, fryers, and ovens; servers use ice makers, drink dispensers, and ice cream machines; cashiers use cash registers; dishwashers use dishwashing machines. 12. Write on the chalkboard: Benefits of Capital Resources: Help produce goods and services faster Make work easier Help produce better goods and services 13. Review these three points, mentioning some familiar ways in which physical capital helps specific workers do their work faster, easier, and/or better. For example, grocery clerks can check out customers faster and probably more accurately by using cash registers or electronic scanners. Discuss how other workers depicted in the journals benefit from the capital resources they use. Assessment 1. Turn students attention to page 11-1 in their journals and review the definition of resources. Have them turn to page 11-2 in their Student Journal. Ask them to use a newspaper or magazine to find a tool or piece of equipment (physical capital) that they would like to learn to use. When they have finished, ask them to explain how the capital resource would help them make a good or perform a service. (Examples of capital resources in which students might be interested are computers, construction equipment, airplanes, stage equipment, or a stove or oven.) 2. Have the students complete a report card (Activity 3.1) or a human capital checklist (Activity 10.1) for Arthur. Have them write a job application form for Arthur s dog-sitting job. In this job application, they should use the human capital checklist (Activity 10.1) to describe the skills and knowledge a person working as a pet sitter should have. Follow Through As the students discover examples of resources in the classroom, you can label the examples with signs e.g, computer = physical capital, classroom = physical capital, teacher = human capital, school grounds = land. From time to time, have the children write job application forms for different jobs.

7 Choices & Changes UNIT THREE 121 STUDENT JOURNAL Page 11-1 Resources I Have Discovered Name of the Resource Type of Resource

8 122 Choices & Changes UNIT THREE Activity 11-1 Valentine Heart Pattern

9 Choices & Changes UNIT THREE 123 Activity 11-2 Job Application Uncle Jed s Barbershop Name Address Date of Birth Phone Number Position for which you are applying: Barbershop helper Education and training Work experience Special skills you possess Why should Uncle Jed hire you? References: Name: Address: Name: Address: Relationship Phone number Relationship Phone number