A California Principles of Economics class project created “Student Consumer Guides” to be distributed among students at school. These guides served the school-wide community of students by helping teens with “limited funds” make informed decisions about local goods and services. The class enlisted the help of other community entities like the Consumer Affairs Bureau, Consumer Reports and local news stations in creating their consumer guides.
This Student Consumer Guides incorporates inquiry learning into a unit on supply and demand. Students were asked to select the products and services they would review, the criteria used for reviewing goods, and a rubric to evaluate projects and services.
http://www.servicelearning.org/slice/index.php?ep_action=view&ep_id=326
This lesson plan allows for a large amount of student input and transfers many of the student focused benefits noted in our Inquiry in Social Studies mind map. Content is mostly student generated, so teacher influence is negated and students can take ownership of their work. Because the project is focused on the goods and services most likely to be used by students, it connects the students’ in-class lessons with their out-of-class activities and should provide excellent motivation for students.
Some of the methods and best practices are also seen in this lesson plan. Students are encouraged to explore familiar topics within a defined structure. By doing this, they do their own research, create their own meaning, and reach their own conclusions as social scientists.
One of the challenges that could face teachers trying to enact this type of lesson plan is providing a structure to help guide student activities that does not stifle student creativity. A specific difficulty in an assignment like this is the very wide scope of potential goods and services to be reviewed. Taking some class time to list popular goods and services for students to research may be helpful, but it runs the risk of excluding students who have specific goods and services they want to advocate. Another solution would be asking students to submit proposals for which goods and services they which to research. This method allows students to propose exactly what they want to research, while still giving the teacher the ability to disapprove any inappropriate or unnecessary research.
A project like this may have difficulty in finding the resources needed to make an effective consumer guide. By integrating local news stations, the Consumer Affairs Bureau, and Consumer Reports into the lesson plan, students should have access to the resources needed to make useful Student Consume Guides.
This project provides a very intriguing way for students to investigate supply and demand and consumer behavior within their local community. The content is extremely relevant to students and connects their classroom environment to their community. The methodology employed lets students act like social scientists. The structure and community involvement ensures students will help students from getting overwhelmed by the assignment. All in all, a very well done service learning lesson plan.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This seems like a really great service learning project! Since the struggling economy is so prevalent right now, students definitely need to be aware of how it works. Merely lecturing on the economy has the potential to bore/confuse students, but this service learning project is a great hands on way for students to understand how the economy works (while helping the community!)
ReplyDeleteAmerica is a consumerism culture. By giving the students limited funds, it helps students gain a minor understanding of fiscal and consumer responsibility. Supply and demand are also key concepts that are made more relevant to the students, and can grasp it better because of its real world application. Students will love this activity because it concentrates heavily on them, and not just on teacher input. Students love to be put in the driver's seat, making decisions and utilizing their own critical thinking skills.
ReplyDeleteInteresting note: Some studies suggest that students with jobs in high school learn LESS financial responsibility instead of more. Students who have high school jobs generally use all that money as disposable income, and tend to not learn responsible spending habits.
ReplyDeleteJust thought I would mention that.
Adam, I'm sort of going to branch off your own comment and wonder if students would care? I personally think it's a fabulous idea, but I'm financially responsible for myself so I make very careful purchases. (sidenote: I paid $38 for $89 worth of groceries last night! woot!) Even in college when I was technically responsible for my own money I purchased out of convenience and didn't necessarily make any informed decisions. That being said, maybe if I had taken a class like this, I would have learned younger to think before I bought stuff? I would assume that students who treat their earnings as simply disposable income have little financial training from their families. Maybe this class would help some of them understand how to manage their money and be informed buyers?
ReplyDeleteI feel like I would have benefited a lot from a lesson like this. Learning where to find resources on consumer goods is a valuable skill, and I think how to present your findings to others is maybe even more important. Beyond the students, I could see their families and extended community members finding great value a project like this. Being able to make educated purchasing decisions is especially important in today's economic climate.
ReplyDeleteIt might also be interesting for students to interview each other, or people they know about their purchasing habits. If their interviews show that most people don't make informed purchases, then they would see that their service learning project DOES in fact have inherent value.
I don't think the extensive availability of local goods and services would be a negative to this lesson. If the students pick which goods or services to research, they have ownership in the material. The teacher's job at that point is to help form criteria on which to evaluate each good or service and ensure that all information is relevant and appropriate for the project.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your comment, I wonder what demographic these studies analyzed. If the students in the studies had parents that had enough money for student pay to be merely disposable income then I could see how a job might not increase fiscal responsibility. However, I know a number of people who had jobs in high school to help their parents out. These students are very fiscally aware because they can't afford not to be. On a personal level, I had a job during high school and it wasn't out of necessity. However, I became fiscally aware and responsible because I recognized the advantages. It's just some food for thought
@Katy: Your point about the availability of local good is a part of what I was trying to say. From a student perspective, being able to take ownership in your work is really important. But the teacher's job does become more complicated, I imagine, when the scope is larger. Would all the information be relevant and how does a teacher handle information that is not?
ReplyDelete