Student Activity 2

Essential Questions

What are the personal benefits of specialization?

Background

Producing a product consumes resources. The greater the production, the greater the resources consumed. Specialization usually requires the producer to rely on others to meet some of their needs for resources.

Instructional Strategies

Strategy 1

Webbing

• Have students work in groups to extend the following web. Have each group choose a different occupation for the center of the web. The web for each group will be different, as the relationship between jobs is different.

  Printable Student View

  

• Add additional jobs to the web that are directly related to the primary job in the center of the web. Add jobs that are related to other jobs. Make your web as big as it needs to be by adding additional circles to show the relationships.
• When all of the webs are complete and presented, compare them to see if there are some occupations listed on more than one of the webs. When placed together in a large group, have children identify areas where the smaller webs can be joined to make one great web. Have students explain why one job may be on several webs.

Strategy 2

Simulation/Role Play

• Using large tags of different colors with occupations written on them, assign different occupations to individual students. (Mail man, Grocery Store Owner, Doctor, Teacher, Police Officer, Banker, Electrician, Plumber, Department Store Owner, Pharmacist) Be sure that students understand what each occupation is.
• Divide the community workers into two groups:
  • Workers who provide goods
  • Workers who provide services
• Give each community worker a set of 12 strips of paper, corresponding in color to the color of his/her name tag.
  • When each individual gets their turn, they become the producer and the others who receive their strip (service, goods) is the consumer.
  • With the help of the group, have the individual workers decide which of the others they might need to depend on for either goods or services.
  • As the need is determined, the worker (producer) gives one of his/her colored strips to the other worker (consumer). For instance the mailman delivers mail to all of the people listed, so he would give each individual one of his strips to represent the service he provides. At the end of the trading session, students should understand that most of the goods or services are traded and that people in a community depend on each other to meet their personal needs.