Volunteer Instructions
WHAT’S A RESOURCE Activity
FIRST: Clear dry erase board so that you can write on it. Use marker provided in bin. Hang Resources
poster. Arrange desks so that there are 6 groups. Place a game board, game pieces, die and a scoresheet at
each group.
Goal: Students will be able to describe resources, and define scarcity and opportunity cost. They will also
have the ability to discuss technology as a capital resource in demand by most businesses.
Opening Comments: In order for businesses to produce goods and services, they must have resources.
 Using the Resources poster, define:
o Natural Resources as, things provided by nature.
o Capital Resources as, buildings, tools, and machines used to make a product.
o Human Resources as, people who do the work that a business needs. Not only do they make
the product or provide the service, they also invent and improve products/services.
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Ask students for examples of all. Write answers on the dry/erase board.
o Natural Resource examples – air, water, cotton, trees, and minerals.
o Capital Resources examples – buildings, machines, shipping boxes, paper invoices, and pens.
o Human Resource examples – people (CEO, machine operator, cashier, customer service
manager, police officer, and bank teller).
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Ask if the students know what scarcity is? Explain that scarcity occurs when people or businesses
cannot have everything they want because of limited resources.
o Examples of scarcity:
 1970’s gasoline shortage effected delivery of goods around the world.
 Over fishing can cause a shortage of a type of fish.
 Avian flu in 2012 killed millions of chicken in Mexico, which resulted in a shortage of
eggs (a staple in the Mexican diet).
 Natural disasters can wipe farmlands out and create a shortage of crops.
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When scarcity occurs, people and businesses must decide on an alternative. When a choice is made,
there is an opportunity cost for that is given up. Define opportunity cost as the value of the next best
alternative given up when a choice is made.
o For example, you have the choice to go to a movie with your friends or stay at home and watch
a DVD. If you choose to go to the movie, then you’ve given up the opportunity to relax at
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home. Or, you can earn money walking the neighbor’s dog or play at a friend’s house. If you
choose to walk the dog, then the opportunity cost is playing at a friend’s house.
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Businesses make choices every day based on resource needs. And for most, technology (the use of
machinery, equipment, and/or processes to make or do something) has changed how they operate.
New technology is a capital resource that allows businesses to do things faster and sometimes with
fewer workers (human resources).
o What resources are used to develop technology? (human and capital)
Ask students what the opportunity cost may be if a business cannot afford the latest technology.
o Answers may include that a company will need to hire more people to keep up with work, or it
may lose customers because it is unable to produce a product/service as quickly as buyers want
it.
Questions to ask the students:
o How were reports written before people used computers?
o How did people listen to music before there were portable music devices, and where did they
buy the music?
o How did people keep cool or warm before air conditioning and heating?
o How did kitchen function before refrigerators, stoves, and microwave ovens?
Activity – Get Connected Game:
STEPS:
1. Tell each group to select a scorekeeper. Scorekeepers will track points on the Get Connected
Score Sheets.
2. Place Game Pieces on the Start space. Stack the Get Connected Game Cards on the center of
the board.
3. Players will take turns rolling the Die. The player who rolls the highest number starts the play.
Play continues clockwise.
4. For each roll of the die, the player moves his/her Game Pieces the number of spaces indicated
and follows the instructions on that square. Players get one move per turn.
a. Get Connected Spaces: When landing on a Get Connect space, a student other than the
current player takes a Get Connected Game Card from the stack and reads it aloud. If
the question is answered correctly by the current player, the scorekeeper adds the
assigned points to the player’s score. His/her turn ends and play continues.
b. Open Space: When landing on a technology-image space, no further move is made, and
the player’s turn ends.
5. When all players reach the Finish space on the game board, the player with the most points
wins. Game play lasts about 20 minutes. If time runs out, the player with the most points wins.
*If one group finishes the game before other groups have finished, that group may play again*
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Talking Points:
After play has ended, ask the students the following questions:
o What are some of the resources required by the situations in the game? (Answers should
include all three types of resources: human, capital, and natural.)
o Were some of those resources limited by scarcity? (Yes.)
o What types of companies and businesses need workers with strong technology skills? (All kinds
of businesses use workers, a human resource, with technology skills.)
o Are there businesses that lack enough employees with skills needed by the business? (Yes.)
What kind of resource is that? (Human resource.)
o What are the skills you are most interested in acquiring? What can you start doing now to get
the skills you need to be a valued worker? (Build on useful skills learned in school.)
Summary and Review: (if time allows)
Review concepts and key terms introduced in this activity.
Remind students that human, capital, and natural resources are vital to operating a business. Tell
them that they can being to develop skills now that will help them become valued workers, or human
resources. Explain that during the next session, they will explore skills that are used in many jobs.
End of Day Clean-Up
 Place any leftover What’s the Resource? Newsletters back in the bin.
 Place the Get Connected Game Card sets back in the bin.
 Place the Get Connected Game Boards back in the bin.
 Place any leftover Get Connected Game Score sheets back in the bin.
 Place the Resources Poster back in the bin.
 Place tape and/or magnetic clamps back in the bin.
 Place the dry erase marker in the bin.
 Place Flashcards back in the bin.
 Place the green Activity Plan folder back in the bin.
 Thank the teacher for allowing JA in their classroom today.
 Meet up with JA staff at designated location to return the bin.
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