Louisiana State Museum
Natural Abundance
of
Louisiana
Performance Tasks
Students will tour the Natural
Abundance Gallery to review the natural
resources found in the gallery. Students
will locate six natural resources in the
gallery and complete an ideal web
based on each resource as to the
products produced from that resource.
Students will move through the first and
third floor galleries selecting artifacts to
determine the natural resource that is a
part of the composition of the artifact.
STUDENT LEARNING:
Knowledgediscovery, locating,
listing, naming
Comprehension –
understanding,
summarizing
Application – using
problem solving
methods
Analysisorganization of
ideas
Synthesis –
inferring
Evaluation
solving
Instructional Focus:
Writing – Write an informative/explanatory narrative in the
form of a short fiction story.
History – Students will learn about events, culture, and
people of Louisiana through studying museum artifacts.
Social Studies – Economics – Natural resources, human
resources, capital resources, supply and demand,
abundance, scarcity, goods, services, and opportunity cost.
Math – Represent and solve problems using data from
maps, graphs, and tables.
A crosscurricular
lesson linked
to the
common core
state
standards.
STANDARDS:
Social Studies –E1A-E1,
E-1A-E4, E-1A-E5, E1A-E6, E-1A-E9, E1B-E1, E-1B-E2, E1B-E5
ELA - ELA-2-E1,
ELA-2-E2, ELA-2-E3,
ELA-2-E4, ELA-2-E5,
ELA-3.E1, 2, 3, 4,
ELA-5-E2
Math – D-1-E, D-3E
GRADING
We suggest you grade on
correctness, creativity, and
completion
MATERIALS
Booklet of worksheets and pencils
provided by the museum for
museum exploration. Materials for
classroom pre and post activities
are listed in the teacher module.
Pre-Visit Activities
L E AR N I N G M O D U L E :
Words to Know
Pre-Visit Activities prepare your students for a rewarding
Museum visit. Before your visit, introduce natural resources, human
resources, capital resources, scarity, and supply and demand to the
class. Suggested activities for instruction are listed in the following
pages.
Natural Resources
Human Resources
Capital Resources
Abundance
Scarcity
Goods
Services
Opportunity cost
Teacher Notes: A very good resource with free lesson plans is
http://williamcwood.com/econed/links-to-lessons/elementary/. In order to use this lesson
without the book, “ Tortilla Factory”, just substitute french bread for tortillas and crawfish for beans explaining that the students will make a crawfish poboy. Make up your own story about
how the poboy is made.
Activity 1:
We suggest that to introduce natural,
human, and capital resources that the
teacher alters the lesson plan, “Tortilla Factory”, found on the above mentioned website with the students producing a
crawfish poboy out of paper and paper
plates instead of a taco
Capitol Park Museum
Definition: Natural Resources
are naturally occurring materials,
such as land, that are “gifts of nature”;; they are present without human intervention. Human
Resources are the people who work
to produce goods and services.
Capital Resources are goods
produced and used to make other
goods or services.
Economics
Pre-Visit Activities
Economics Pre-Visit Activities
Directions
Use the activities on the following pages to introduce the natural, capital, and human resources.
Activity 2: Scarcity
Materials: popcorn, small paper bags
Activity Procedure
Place popped popcorn into two paper
Definition: Scarcity
lunch bags and staple the bags
closed.
Occurs when people want more of
Place crumpled newspaper in two
something than is readily available.
additional paper lunch bags and
staple the bags closed.
Tell the students that you have a
snack that was donated to the class
and you feel there is enough for
everyone in the class.
Call students by row to take as much
popcorn as they want. Give the
students additional receptacles to
accommodate their desire.
As the popcorn runs out, open the additional bags. Act surprised to find newspaper in
the last two sacks. Explain that there is a scarcity of popcorn for the class.
Ask the students with the popcorn if they would have taken less popcorn if they knew
there would be a scarcity of popcorn. Challenge them to come up with a solution to the
scarcity of popcorn in the class.
Relate the situation to real life scarcity issues in Louisiana society, such as supply of
Louisiana crawfish or supply of gasoline.
Activity 3: Supply and Demand
Materials: Package of beans or play money,
items that would be in high demand for
students (IPod, name brand tennis shoes,
etc.), items that is in low demand for
students.
Definition: Supply and demand
means producers supply goods
and services and consumers
demand them.
Demand refers to how much
(quantity) of a product is desired by
buyers. Supply represents how
much the market can offer.
Activity Procedure:
Capitol Park Museum
Economics
Pre-Visit Activities
Distribute beans or play money to students and then offer different items that
might be exciting to students that are in high demand and some items that have
less perceived value and will have a lower demand.
Let the students bid for the items using their beans or play money.
List on the board the items that brought higher prices. Ask the students why
these items had higher prices
Relate this to Louisiana crawfish: In the beginning of crawfish season there is
not enough crawfish available because pond raised crawfish are the only
crawfish available. The crawfish from the Atchafalaya Basin are not ready.
Therefore, crawfish will cost more because the demand for crawfish is more than
the supply that is available.
Later into the season when the Atchafalaya crawfish are on the market then
there is an abundance of crawfish so the price is lower because the supply of
crawfish is more than the demand.
Have the students compare the price of crawfish early in the season ($3.00 a
pound) to the price toward the end of the season ($1.50 a pound). Have the
students find the difference between the two prices.
Have the students estimate how much it would cost to ship fifty pounds of
crawfish (@$1.50 a pound). Have them add the shipping cost to the purchase
price and find the price that people out of state have to pay for Louisiana
crawfish.
.Activity 4: Opportunity Cost
Materials: sheets of notebook paper
Activity Procedure:
Definition: Opportunity Cost:
Give each student a piece of
notebook paper and have them fold it
into fourths.
Is the most valuable alternative you give
up when you make a decision.
Have the students open the paper and
note the four squares formed by the
folds. Tell them to label the upper lefthand rectangle with a number “1”, the other upper rectangle label with a
Capitol Park Museum
Economics
Pre-Visit Activities
number “2”, the lower left rectangle with a number “3”, and the lower last rectangle with a number “4”.
Write the words opportunity cost on the board. Ask the students to write opportunity cost
in rectangle “1”. Explain that at the end of class they will know the meaning of
opportunity cost.
Ask the students to write in rectangle “2” a list of eight activities that they would really like to do with a friend. Explain that their friend can only do three things on the list due to
a lack of time or money. Ask the students to circle in blue the three favorite activities out
of the eight that they want do. Explain that they cannot have everything they listed in
rectangle two because resources and time are scarce.
Have the students write the three blue-circled activities in rectangle three. Tell the
students that at the last minute their friend tells them that they only have time to do one
of the three activities.
Have the students look at the three activities in rectangle three and to place a number
one next to the activity that they would like to do the most and write a number two next
to their second best choice.
Have the students write the activity with the number two by it in rectangle four at the very
top of the rectangle. Explain to the students that because time was scarce they could
not do all three favorite activities listed. Therefore, they had to make a choice between
the three favorite activities. The next best activity (number two written at the top of
rectangle four) that they gave up is called opportunity cost.
Instruct the students to write the word opportunity cost and its definition in
rectangle four (opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative given up
when a choice is made).
Discuss with the students the criteria used in making their decision. On the back
side of the paper have the students write my favorite activity was ______. My
opportunity cost was_____ because that activity was the next best choice.
Have the students write a story identifying opportunity cost based on one of the
three ideas listed below:
Capitol Park Museum
Economics
Pre-Visit Activities
1. There was a time when you had a chance to do three really fun activities but you
.
could only do one
.
2. You only have money to purchase one toy, but there are three toys you really want.
3. You have only one TV, but everyone in the family wants to watch a certain TV
program at the same time you want to watch your favorite program.
Tell the students that their story needs to describe the choices they had when
making their decision.
Capitol Park Museum
Economics
Pre-Visit Activities
ACTIVITY 2: Four - Square Writing: Economics
Activity Procedure:
Directions: Use the four square writing method to write a story with the main character
being a cotton boll that has a dream of becoming a beautiful garment such as a shirt.
Square One
Square Two
The character is a cotton boll. Describe the
cotton boll.
What is the name of the cotton boll?
What color is the cotton boll?
What color eyes does it have?
Is he big or little?
Is he happy or sad?
Describe where the cotton boll lives (an example
would be in a cotton field). What is around the
cotton field? Is there a pond, bayou, or river
nearby?
Story Starter:
Once upon a time there was a cotton boll
named_________. He/she had eyes that
were __________. He/she was _______.
Story Starter:
_________the Cotton Boll lived in a ______. There
was a __________ next to the _______.
Square Three
Continue with the statement that the cotton
boll dreamed of becoming a pretty
garment. Continue describing the steps
that the cotton boll will undergo to become
a pretty garment.
Square Four
Conclude the story with the last step of the
process of becoming a garment. Could a person
proudly wear the garment to a special event? Use
an exclamation sentence to end the story.
Example: (“_______Cotton Boll was proud to be a beautiful garment!”)
Story Starter:
One day
Story Starter:
Finally,
Capitol Park Museum
Economics
Pre-Visit Activities
Activity 3: Math
Materials: Commodity Map from the website http://aitcla.org/teacher-resources/
Activity Procedure:
Print a map for each student.
Direct the students to count the number of total commodities produced in Louisiana.
Instruct the students to identify East Baton Rouge Parish and Livingston Parish on the
map.
The students will count the number of total commodities produced in each of these two
parishes and identify by subtraction the parish producing the greatest number of
commodities. How many more commodities are produced?
Continue to use the map for more subtraction and addition problems.
Capitol Park Museum
Economics
Post-Visit Activities
Post-Activity
Teacher Notes: A suggested site for information on Louisiana resources is
http://aitcla.org/teacher-resources/
Activity 1: Louisiana’s Resources
Materials: Sheets of construction paper in five different colors.
Activity Procedure:
Divide the students into groups of two or three and assign a construction paper
color to each group.
Assign a Louisiana resource (lumber, sugar, cotton, crawfish, oil, rice, etc.) to
each group.
Instruct each group of students to construct a story chain by cutting the construction
paper into links and writing a sentence on each link stating the production process from
farmer to store of the assigned resource.
Example:
Sentence 1: There is a cotton farmer in our state.
Sentence 2: The farmer grows cotton in a large field.
Sentence 3: The cotton is harvested and taken to the cotton gin.
Sentence 4: At the cotton gin, the seeds are separated from the fiber.
Sentence 5: The cotton fiber is shipped to a plant and made into thread.
Sentence 6: The cotton thread is dyed and woven into cloth.
Sentence 7: The cloth is sent to a factory and made into a shirt.
Sentence 8: The shirt is shipped to a store in our city.
Sentence 9: My Mom buys the shirt from the store.
Sentence 10: I wear the shirt to school.
Display the paper chains on a bulletin board.
Capitol Park Museum
Economics
Natural Resources
Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Natural Resource of Louisiana
Which natural resource of Louisiana belongs in the center of the ideal web?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Oil
Forest
Sugar
Ocean
Fishing
?
Shrimping
Sailing
Natural Resource of Louisiana
Which natural resource of Louisiana belongs in the center of the ideal web?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Ocean
Oil
Forest
Sugar
Paper
?
Houses
Furniture
Natural Resource of Louisiana
Which natural resource of Louisiana belongs in the center of the idea web?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Sugar
Oil
Forest
Ocean
Candy
?
Syrup
Bottled
Drinks
Natural Resource of Louisiana
Which natural resource of Louisiana belongs in the center of the ideal map?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Sugar
Oil
Cotton
Forest
Clothes
?
Bed
Sheets
Bath
Towels
Natural Resource of Louisiana
Which natural resource of Louisiana belongs in the center of the ideal web?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Sugar
Cotton
Rice
Forest
Cereal
?
Jambalaya
Dog Food
Products
Natural Resource of Louisiana
Which natural resource of Louisiana belongs in the center of the ideal web?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Ocean
Forest
Oil
Sugar
Cars
?
Heat
Airplanes
In the boxes below, search the galleries and list artifacts that are
products of each natural resource labeled on the box.
Forest
Sugar
Ocean
Cotton
Oil
Rice