Food and wellbeing: F-6/7 Humanities and Social Sciences

•  why people have different views on the issue, and developing a class response to it

Economics and business

Content descriptions with elaborations

The difference between needs and wants and why choices need to be made about how limited resources are used (ACHASSK119)

• explaining the concept of scarcity (that is, needs and unlimited wants compared to resources) and why individuals cannot have all the items they want and therefore must make a choice
• debating whether one person’s need is another person’s need or want

Types of resources (natural, human, capital) and the ways societies use them to satisfy the needs and wants of present and future generations (ACHASSK120)

• categorising resources as natural (water, coal, wheat), human (workers, business owners, designing, making, thinking) and capital (tools, machines, technologies)

Influences on consumer choices and methods that can be used to help make informed personal consumer and financial choices (ACHASSK121)

• identifying goods they have purchased and categorising and explaining the factors that influence decisions (for example, personal preferences, social trends, economic factors such as budgets and the amount of money available to spend; psychological factors such as advertising and peer pressure; cultural, environmental, legal and ethical factors)
• comparing the influence of a variety of selling and advertising strategies used by businesses (for example, the influence of television and internet advertising compared to email promotions)
• recognising that financial transactions can include the use of notes, coins, credit and debit cards and barter items; explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the different transaction types; and considering how these may influence the way people purchase items
• exploring the strategies that can be used when making consumer and financial decisions (for example, finding more information, comparing prices, keeping a record of money spent, saving for the future)
   

Year 6

Knowledge and understanding

Economics and business

Content descriptions with elaborations

How the concept of opportunity cost involves choices about the alternative use of resources and the need to consider trade-offs (ACHASSK149)

• explaining why when one choice is made, the next best alternative is not available (trade-off), for example if a student chooses to spend their time (resource) riding their bike after school, they cannot go for a swim (trade-off)
• explaining why choices have to be made when faced with unlimited wants and limited resources (for example, by compiling a list of personal needs and wants, determining priorities (including sustainability of natural environments), and identifying the needs and wants that can be satisfied with the resources available)

The effect that consumer and financial decisions can have on the individual, the broader community and the environment (ACHASSK150)

• exploring how a decision to buy an item affects the family, for example: ‘Did the family have to put off buying another item to have this one?’
• investigating whether buying at the local supermarket helps the local community
• considering if their actions have an effect on the environment (for example, does choosing to use recyclable shopping bags have an effect on the natural environment?)
• investigating questions (for example, ‘Does what my family buys in the supermarket affect what businesses might sell or produce’?)

The reasons businesses exist and the different ways they provide goods and services (ACHASSK151)

• identifying why businesses exist (for example to produce goods and services, to make a profit, to provide employment) and investigating the different ways that goods and services are provided to people, such as through shopping centres, local markets, online, small independent stores, remote community stores