Unit 2:  Economics in Louisiana

Activity 4:  Scarcity of Resources:  Personal and Societal Levels (GLE:  42)

CC:  Have students role-play a city council meeting called to allocate a budget of $100,000. Students should represent the following groups to explain why money should be allocated as they ask:

Police Group:  Buy four police cars at $25,000 each.

Senior Citizens Group: Repair two senior citizen centers at $50,000 each.

Community Center Group: Construct new tennis complex at $50,000 and renovate swimming pool at $50,000.

Tourism Group:  Fund a summer theater festival and community art show to bring tourists into the area.

City Council Members:  Question other groups and facilitate a consensus.

Have students debate their causes at the individual, group, and societal levels and come to a consensus by making a choice on how to spend money. They should be able to describe trade-offs and opportunity cost.

Use MS Word to create a form to record individual group's reasons for requesting money to be allocated for their project.

Use Inspiration software to create a graphic organizer to record rationale for budget requests.

Inspiration template - "City Council Budget Requests"