An introductory economics lesson on scarcity, trade-offs, and opportunity cost designed for high school Emergent Bilinguals and diverse readers. Features highly visual scaffolded case studies, graphic decision organizers, and dual-language vocabulary support.
Think of a decision you made today or yesterday. Fill out the tree details:
My limited resource was: TIME or MONEY
My final decision was to __________________________________________________________________________.
My opportunity cost (what I gave up) was ___________________________________________________________.
Worksheet Answer Key
Part 1 Vocab Match
- Scarcity → Having unlimited wants but limited resources.
- Trade-Off → Choosing one option instead of another.
- Opportunity Cost → The alternative option you gave up.
Scenario A (Leo)
- 1. Limited Resource: Time (Only Saturday night free)
- 2. Chosen Decision: Work shift (grocery store)
- 3. Opportunity Cost: Friend's dinner
- Sentences: "...scarcity of time, he chose to work shift... cost was friend's dinner."
Scenario B (Gabriela)
- 1. Limited Resource: Time (2 hours after school)
- 2. Chosen Decision: Study history
- 3. Opportunity Cost: Basketball practice
- Sentences: "...scarcity of time, chose to study history... cost was basketball practice."
Scenario C (Marcus)
- 1. Limited Resource: Money (Only has $100)
- 2. Chosen Decision: SAT study book
- 3. Opportunity Cost: New video game
- Sentences: "...scarcity of money, chose to buy college prep book... cost was new video game."
Quick Grading Rubric
Criteria
Proficient (3 pts)
Emerging (2 pts)
Needs Support (1 pt)
Scarcity Discovery
Correctly identifies "Time" vs. "Money" on all three case studies.
Identifies the scarce resource in 1-2 case studies.
Struggles to distinguish between time limits and money limits.
Opportunity Cost
Correctly identifies the single alternative given up on all trees.
Identifies the alternative correctly on 1-2 trees.
Confuses the chosen decision with the opportunity cost.
Writing Frames
Frames are fully completed with correct vocabulary and context.
Frames are completed with minor writing or grammatical issues.
Writing sections are left blank or vocabulary is incorrect.
