Public learning track
Understanding Trade-Offs and Opportunity Cost
4th Grade · Social-studies · US-WI-SS
7 lessons
Goal
Understand how to evaluate everyday choices by identifying trade-offs, calculating personal opportunity costs, and building cost-benefit decision grids.
7 lessons
0 of 7 done
- 1What Is a Trade-Off?Up nextStart
- 2Defining Opportunity Cost: The Next Best ChoicePremiumNot started yet
- 3Calculating Opportunity Cost in After-School ActivitiesNot started yet
- 4Why Opportunity Costs Differ Between PeopleNot started yet
- 5Identifying Monetary and Non-Monetary CostsNot started yet
- 6Identifying Immediate and Long-Term BenefitsNot started yet
- 7Creating a Cost-Benefit Decision GridNot started yet
Standards Covered
- SS.Econ1Wisconsin Social Studies Standards · Social-studies · Grade 4 (target) · Grade 4Wisconsin students use economic reasoning to understand issues.
- Econ1.aWisconsin Social Studies Standards · Social-studies · Grade 4 (target) · Grade 4Choices and decision making
- SS.Econ1.a.3Wisconsin Social Studies Standards · Social-studies · Grade 4 (target) · Grade 4Use economic reasoning to compare and contrast the costs and benefits of a decision. Categorize different limited resources (e.g., money, materials, time, labor or workers, land, natural resources, renewable or non-renewable).
- SS.Econ1.a.mWisconsin Social Studies Standards · Social-studies · Grade 4 (target) · Grade 4Predict the opportunity costs of various decisions and explain why the opportunity cost might differ from person to person or in different situations. Assess how limited resources (e.g., money, land, natural resources, workers, time) impact the choices of individuals, households, communities, businesses, and countries.
- SS.Econ1.a.hWisconsin Social Studies Standards · Social-studies · Grade 4 (target) · Grade 4Perform a cost–benefit analysis on a real-world situation, using economic thinking to describe the marginal costs and benefits of a particular decision.
Curriculum Framework
4th Grade · Social-studies · US-WI-SS
1
5 lessons
Needs, Wants, and Community Resources
Distinguish between human needs and wants and examine how families, communities, and nations identify vital resources.
2
10 lessons
Scarcity and Economic Decision-Making
Understand economic scarcity, classify productive resources, and explore how individuals, businesses, and governments make choices when resources are limited.
3
7 lessons
Understanding Trade-Offs and Opportunity Cost
Understand how to evaluate everyday choices by identifying trade-offs, calculating personal opportunity costs, and building cost-benefit decision grids.
4
8 lessons
Applied Decision-Making: Marginal Analysis and Public Choices
Apply marginal analysis and comprehensive cost-benefit evaluations to business, environmental, and community-level economic decisions.
5
8 lessons
Everyday Incentives and Consumer Behavior
Explore how positive and negative incentives influence personal choices, consumer habits, and household decisions.
6
7 lessons
Market Incentives and Economic Systems
Examine how profit, competition, and public policies drive business production and evaluate how to design effective incentive systems.
7
7 lessons
Goods, Services, Consumers, and Producers
Identify and classify physical goods and community services while discovering how individuals act as both producers and consumers.
8
8 lessons
Interdependence in the Economy: Markets, Labor, and Communities
Explore how households, businesses, and governments interact through labor, specialization, public goods, and reciprocal market flows.
9
7 lessons
Exploring Product Markets and Prices
Examine physical and digital product markets in the community and analyze how goods are priced across different retail environments.
10
8 lessons
Factor Markets and the Circular Flow of the Economy
Understand factor and labor markets, trace how money and resources circulate through the economy, and evaluate the role of local businesses.
11
9 lessons
Supply, Demand, and Market Equilibrium
Learn how consumer demand and producer supply interact to establish equilibrium prices, and explore what happens during shortages and surpluses.
12
6 lessons
Market Forces in Action: Prices, Goods, and Real-World Markets
Explore how prices communicate information, analyze substitute and complementary goods, and examine real-world market scenarios through graphs and simulations.
13
4 lessons
Market Competition and Monopolies
Explore how competition among sellers and buyers shapes prices and consumer options, and examine what happens when competition is absent in a monopoly.
14
6 lessons
Non-Price Factors and Consumer Demand
Investigate how non-price factors like fads, weather, technology, advertising, income changes, and population growth shift supply and demand.
15
5 lessons
Production Costs, Regulations, and Market Forecasting
Analyze how raw material costs and government regulations affect supply, and apply economic clues across case studies to forecast real-world market changes.
16
7 lessons
Factors of Production and the Labor Market
Examine the four factors of production, explore investments in capital and entrepreneurship, and understand how labor markets and workplace regulations function.
17
8 lessons
Specialization, Trade, and the Global Economy
Analyze how regional advantages drive domestic and international trade, explore global supply chains, and examine trade policies and economic citizenship.