Georgia SS4E1.a
The Standard
Describe opportunity cost and its relationship to decision-making across time (e.g., decisions to settle in the west).
Georgia Standards of Excellence for Social Studies · Use the basic economic concepts of trade, opportunity cost, specialization, voluntary exchange, productivity, and price incentives to illustrate historical events.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students examine choices people made in the past. They identify the next-best option people gave up. They explain how that tradeoff shaped decisions, such as moving west.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can name a choice and identify the next-best option not selected. They can explain why expected benefits made people willing to give up that option.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call money spent the opportunity cost or list every rejected option. They may name a later bad result instead of the next-best choice available at the time.
How to Assess It
- Ask: “A family chooses to move west instead of staying on its eastern farm. What is the opportunity cost, and how did it affect the decision?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs three settler choice cards, have them rank the options, select one, and label the next-best option as the opportunity cost.
Write whether a family should stay in the East or move west, then name what the family would give up.
Play Opportunity Cost Corners: read historical choice scenarios, students move to an option, then identify the best rejected option.
Plan a class snack purchase with a fixed budget, choose one option, and explain which rejected option is the opportunity cost.
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Printable SS4E1.a Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS5E1.a
Describe opportunity costs and their relationship to decision-making across time (e.g., decisions by individuals in response to rationing during WWII).
- SS3E4
Explain the concept of opportunity cost as it relates to making a saving or spending choice.
- SS5E1
Use the basic economic concepts of trade, opportunity cost, specialization, productivity, and price incentives to illustrate historical events.
- SS2E1
Explain that because of scarcity, people must make choices that result in opportunity costs.
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