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History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Goals, Resources and Opportunity Costs

Every financial decision starts with limited resources and competing goals. Through fictional teenagers' choices, learners distinguish needs from wants, write SMART goals and calculate the saving needed to reach them, measure opportunity costs in money and time, think at the margin, and learn to ignore sunk costs. The elective uses fictional people and numbers and never gives personal financial advice.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 110 minutes
  • Goals and choices check: 9 questions
  • Ways to answer: fill in the blanks, choose an answer, highlight a text, match pairs, type a number and put in order
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What learners will discover

  • Explain scarcity and distinguish needs from wants and the resources people use to meet them.
  • Write SMART financial goals and calculate the regular saving needed to reach them.
  • Identify and calculate opportunity costs, including the value of time.
  • Use marginal thinking and ignore sunk costs when making decisions.

Lessons

  1. Scarcity, needs and wants 4 steps3 practiceabout 25 min
  2. SMART goals 4 steps3 practiceabout 27 min
  3. Opportunity cost 4 steps3 practiceabout 28 min
  4. Marginal thinking and sunk costs 5 steps4 practiceabout 30 min
  5. Goals and choices check 9 questions at the end

Keep exploring

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