Content Standard 1: Scarcity

Grade 4 Benchmark

5. The opportunity cost of a activity is the value of the best alternatives that would have been chosen instead. It includes what would have been done with the money spent and the time and other resources used in undertaking the activity.

Standard 5: Trade

Grade 8 Benchmark

7. Voluntary exchange among people or organizations gives people a broader range of choices in buying goods and services.

Standard 6: Specialization

Grade 4 Benchmark

1. Economic specialization occurs when people concentrate their production on fewer varieties of goods and services than they consume.

Grade 8 Benchmark

2. Like trade among individuals within one country, international trade promotes specialization and division of labor and increases the productivity of labor, output and consumption.

Grade 12 Benchmark

1. Individuals and nations have a comparative advantage in the production of goods or services if they can produce a product at a lower opportunity cost than other individuals or nations.

• Comparative Advantage SMARTBoard lesson
• Production Possibilities lesson with PowerPoint and SMARTBoard
• Economic Lowdown Video Series—Production Possibilities Frontier, Segment 1
• Economic Lowdown Video Series—Production Possibilities Frontier, Segment 2
• Economic Lowdown Video Series—Production Possibilities Frontier, Segment 3