Choice

About

A group of young teenagers go to the amusement park and are faced with difficult decisions.

From the series: Trade-offs

From teacher's guide included with film: "This lesson introduces the important concept of opportunity cost. The program is about children who, like everyone else, have limited amounts of resources such as time and money. The children recognize they must frequently choose between the different ways they can use their re-sources. Inevitably, choosing one thing means giving up the opportunity to choose something else. Opportunity cost is defined as what must be given up when one makes a choice. Considering opportunities that must be given up is an important aid in systematic decision-making, and repeated use of this concept will be made in later lessons.

BEFORE THE PROGRAM Tell your students that this program is about making choices. In making choices, the girls and boys in the program realize they can't have every-thing. Ask your students to look for the choices the young people make and what they give up.

PROGRAM SUMMARY Gordon and his friends receive a trip to an amusement park and $6 worth of tickets. However, Gordon wants to go to a ball game played at the same time as the trip and must choose between the two. He chooses the amusement park but finds that he and his friends face other choices when they get there. Harold has to decide whether to use his tickets for food or for rides, Loretta whether to use her last film exposure for a picture of Julia or for a group shot to give to the sponsors of the trip, and Sammy whether to use her allowance for more tickets to the water sled or to save it for the movies.

Special visuals, review these choices and introduce the term "opportunity cost." Later the group sees a building under construction on the field where they played ball. Each child speculates about what is being built. Gordon envisions a movie theatre; Harold, a fire station; Joe, an office building; and a police officer suggests a gymnasium. They offer reasons for their choices, but recognize that there is not enough land, labor, steel, and cement to construct everything they would like. The viewer is asked, 'What would you do if you had to choose what to build?'

AFTER THE PROGRAM 1. What ideas did the children have about what was being built on their ball field? 2. Are there other possibilities? 3. Can all of these be built there? Why not? 4. What do you think should be built? 5. Why do you think this is a good choice? 6. What is the opportunity cost of this choice? 7. Ask students to list some choices that they have made recently. What were their alternatives? Which did they choose? What was the opportunity cost of each choice? 8. Select a local issue where there are conflicting alternatives for using limited resources. Have the students identify the alternatives and list them. Then have them identify the opportunity cost of choosing any single alternative."

Informational pamphlet included with film: "Fifteen 20-minute color programs in economic education for children nine to thirteen years old. Each Trade-offs lesson consists of a 20-minute color program plus teacher's guide material to facilitate classroom follow-up. Each program begins with a short segment that identifies key points that students and teachers should watch for. This is followed by the dramatization of a fundamental economic problem relevant to the daily life of the student. Special visuals then emphasize the economic principles and reasoning processes involved. The last portion of the program introduces, but does not resolve, another problem involving the same economic principles, and ends by posing a question to the viewers. This guide provides a statement of the goals of the lesson, suggestions for activities before the program, a program summary, and suggestions for post-program activities to complete the lesson. A complete, 48-page teacher's guide for the Trade-offs series is available from agency for instructionai television box a, bloomington, indiana 47401"

Can notes: "IMC: Instructional Media Center Superintendent of Schools Marin County / Trade Offs / Choice / MPN 426 / 6/16/78" Program: "Choice (Opportunity Cost) from Trade Offs / 5685"

Archive

Internet Archive, in Prelinger Archives

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Rights statement

at beginning: "(c) MCMLXXVII All rights reserved Agency for Instructional Television" at end: "(c) MCMLXXVIII All rights reserved Agency for Instructional Television" Discrepancy in copyright year in above titles.

Credit

Agency for Instructional Television (AIT), Educational Film Center

Language

English

Subtitles

English (automatic)

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed