4th - 5th Grade
Capital resources - Goods made by people and used to produce
other goods and services. Examples include tools, roads, bridges,
factories, machinery, glue, lumber, chalk, rope, textbooks, and workbooks.
Consume - Use goods and services to satisfy economic wants.
Consumers - People who buy and use goods and services to
satisfy economic wants.
Demand - The amount of a resource or product buyers are willing
and able to buy at different possible prices.
Economic decision - A choice to produce or consume a good
or a service. Because we cannot have everything we want, we have
to decide what we will choose and what we will give up.
Economic growth - Producing more goods and services at the
present time than were produced in the past.
Economic wants - Goods and services people would like to
have. Examples include food, clothing, a place to live, a bicycle,
a toy, a trip to an amusement park, and a birthday party.
Economy - The way a society organizes to produce, distribute
and consume goods and services.
Goods - Things that people make or grow that satisfy economic
wants. Examples include a house, a car, a toy, and an apple.
Human resources - People (workers) doing physical or mental
work to produce goods or services. Examples include teachers, cooks,
bus drivers, and carpenters.
Interdependence - Depending on one another for resources,
goods, and services. When people and businesses specialize, they
become interdependent. Example: Within a community, a grocer depends
on a doctor for medical care and a doctor depends on a grocer for
food. Geographers look at how transportation and communication link
people and places.
Limited resources - Not having enough resources to produce
all the goods and services that people want.
Money - Something that is used to buy and sell resources,
goods, and services. Money is not a capital resource because it is
not used to produce goods and services.
Natural resources - Gifts of nature that can be used to produce
goods and services. Examples include trees, sunshine, soil, water,
plants, animals, oil, coal, and metals.
Opportunity cost - The next best (second-best) choice that
is given up when a decision (choice) is made. Example: Pedro is buying
lunch in the cafeteria. The choices are pizza, tacos, or a hot dog.
Pedro likes all three choices, but he can only have one. He chooses
pizza. His opportunity cost is his next best (second-best) choice,
which is tacos. Example: Farmer Jones can choose to plant the field
with corn, plant the field with soybeans, raise cattle, or raise
sheep. She chooses to raise sheep. Her opportunity cost is her next
best (second-best) choice, which is raising cattle.
Price - The value of a resource, good or service stated in
money terms.
Producers - People who combine natural, human and capital
resources to make goods and/or services.
Product - A good or service made with resources.
Production - The process of combining natural, human and
capital resources to make a product, either a good or a service.
Public goods and services - Goods and services provided by
the government and paid for with taxes. Examples include roads, bridges,
libraries, schools, policy, fire fighters and government.
Resources - Things that can be used to produce a good or
a service.
Services - Actions (jobs) that people do for each other.
A service is something that you cannot touch or hold. A service is
consumed at the instant it is produced. Some services, such as firefighter,
mayor, police officer, and teacher are provided by the government.
Other services, such as plumber, dentist, and hair cutter are provided
by businesses.
Specialized work - A job or a part of a job. Examples include
reading teacher, farmer, brick layer, police officer, taxi driver,
and worker on an assembly line.
Supply - The amount of a resource or product sellers are
willing and able to sell at various possible prices.
Taxes - Money paid to the government so it can provide some
goods and services.
Technology - Skills, methods, tools, machines and other things
used to perform activities. Technology changes over time and affects
the way we live, work, and play. Geographers look at how the use
of technology modifies the natural environment.
Examples include using technology to clear the land; dam a river;
to construct canals, bridges, roads and railroads; and to build communities.
Economists look at how the use of technology changes production and
consumption. Examples include computers, televisions, telephones,
boats, airplanes, bridges, dams, roads, tractors, axes, shovels,
assembly lines and methods of farming.
Trade - The exchange of resources, goods, and services through
barter or the use of money.
