Consumer Education Learning Activities
Description:... This handbook contains model lessons on consumer education for use with intermediate, junior high, and high school students. The handbook was developed as a result of a grant which the Social Science Education Consortium received to conduct three consumer education workshops for approximately 100 Colorado teachers and school administrators. Many of the lessons described in the handbook were used and evaluated by participants in these workshops. The learning activities are self-contained and can be used in social studies, business, home economics, language arts, business, math, and science courses. The activities are organized according to the nine consumer economics categories identified by the U.S. Office of Education: basic economics of the marketplace; legal rights, redress, and consumer law; financial management and credit; energy consumption and conservation; major purchases; special problems (e.g. advertising, public safety); federal assistance and services; consumer representation; and government regulatory processes. The activities are many and varied. For example, in an activity on energy use, students take home worksheets on which they record the numbers and kinds of electrical appliances their families have. When students return to class with their completed worksheets, the teacher selects a dozen commonly used appliances and asks students to suggest what they might do or use if each one were not available. As an extension activity students are asked to identify one appliance that he or she uses every day and refrain from using it for one week. They then write and share brief reports about how difficult or easy it was to do without their favorite appliances and what they did or used instead. Other activities include a candy/gum buying simulation, role playing a small claims court case, analyzing their own spending habits, preparing personal budgets, recycling an empty container, and comparing prices of items in different stores. (Author/RM)
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