Economics - Making a Goods and Services Database

Target Curriculum: History and Social Science

Target Grade: 2 - 3

SOLs: HSS.2.6   HSS.2.7   HSS.3.10  
Time: 50 - 60 minutes

Objective:
· The students will be able to identify at least 5 goods and 5 services. · The students will be able to search for available goods and services using the Internet. · The students will create a database listing the goods and services, including which are "wants" and which are "needs." · The students will work with both a browser (i.e. Netscape) and a database opened at the same time.

Purpose:
For students to be able to search the Internet discriminately, create fields in a database, and to be able to tell the difference between goods, services, wants, and needs.

Materials:
Access to the Internet. ~ At least 1 computer per 2 students, but 1 per computer is ideal.

Procedure:
Introduction · Review what the difference between a good and a service is. Hold a stuffed animal in one hand (good), and an advertisement for jewelry repairs (or any service) in the other. · Next, ask if the stuffed animal and jewelry repair are needs or wants. Direct Instruction · Before working on the computer, set up some search goals. We are looking for: the good or service, it's price, business location, phone number, and if it's a WANT or a NEED · After setting those parameters, begin searching the Internet at different search engine sites. Students should begin searching for products that interest them or those they know. Here are some search engines. http://www.yahoo.com http://www.excite.com http://www.lycos.com http://www.metacrawler.com · After the students are comfortable searching, have them "minimize" their browser so they can open the database program. · Each student must set up fields on the database. Show students how to format and add fields if they're unsure. Next, all students should begin setting up their databases with the following fields: Product Type(good/service) Product Name Business Name Business Location Phone Number Cost Product Necessity(want/need) · After the fields have been set up, students may search the Internet for at least 5 goods and at least 5 services and record their findings immediately in the database. · Upon compilation, students can then print their database results immediately. Closure · HOMEWORK: List what a consumer would have to do in order to find the same product at a lower price.

Observations:
~ Constantly make sure students are on task.

Conclusions:
I feel this is an effective means of motivating students to learn about these basic economic words.

For Your Information:
~ Use newspaper ads, old phone books, etc. if the Internet is not available.

Extension:
· Students could make 2 classroom directories based upon their search results, categorizing alphabetically by goods (wants/needs) and services (wants/needs.)

Class Discussion Questions:
~ What is the difference between a good and a service? ~ What is the difference between a want and a need? (Allow for small group discussion.)