TITLE: Supply and Demand
AUTHOR: Lisa Knight, Meadow Glade Elementary,
Battle Ground, WA
GRADE LEVEL: Appropriate for grades 4-7
OVERVIEW: This lesson allows for personal involvement in
the concept of supply and demand which helps the students
see how it relates to their everyday life.
OBJECTIVE(s): Students will be able to:
1. Define the terms supply and demand.
2. Identify what happens when demand exceeds supply.
3. Identify what happens when supply exceeds demand.
4. Explain how supply and demand affects choices such as:
careers, types of cars made, etc.
5. Give recent examples of instances where demand exceeded
supply and the results.
6. Explain how economic stability or affluence affect
supply and demand.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS:
Teacher materials: tokens, prize for each student in
class (it can be something as simple as chocolate
kisses)
Student materials: pencil, 3 index cards
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1. Students will be given a box of tokens with at least
two different colors in it and asked to select any
number of them from 1 to a handful.
2. Place a value on the tokens. (Make certain this is
done AFTER students have already selected their
tokens.)
3. Pull out an object students would desire to won and let
the students know that they will only receive an "A" on
this lesson if they own this selected item of which you
happen to have EXACTLY one of. You will announce the
bidding to be open at 10 and they may use their tokens
to purchase the item.
4. Continue auction until a student has paid a high price
for this item and received it. Then pull out a large
supply of the very same item just sold while announcing
that you do just happen to have a few more of these
items and you're willing to open the bidding at 1.
WAIT & WATCH REACTION!
5. Write supply and demand on board. Ask the individual
who bought the overpriced item to define what these
terms mean to him in light of the experience he just
had, explain why he was motivated to pay such a high
price for it, and let us know if he would have paid so
much had he known there were enough items to go around.
6. Guide students in a discussion which covers all
objectives. (I found an effective lead-in to objective
#6 is to ask the following: "What if these tokens
represented money and this was all the money you had
available for two months?")
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1. Ask students to think of three items in their desks and
to secretly set a price for each one of them on an
index card which is folded so that it can stand upright
on the desks.
2. Instruct students to then take out the items and place
them by the appropriate "price tag" on their desks.
3. Invite students to go "shopping" and check out all the
prices in the "store".
4. Lead the students in the discussion which will
naturally follow with questions such as:
"Now that you know how other merchants priced their
items how will it affect your pricing of the same
items?"
"Were there some items that would be in high demand
because of their low supply? How might that affect
pricing?"
5. Students may want to stock their "shelves" differently
after doing some comparison shopping and seeing the
availability of certain items. You may then choose to
give them another opportunity to price three items of
their choice and discuss their changes and why they
were made.
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