Texas TEKS 3.6.B
The Standard
define and identify examples of scarcity
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain scarcity as a situation where available resources cannot meet everyone’s wants. They identify scarcity in examples involving goods, time, space, and money.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can sort examples and nonexamples of scarcity correctly. The student can name the limited resource and explain what choice people must make.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think scarcity means an item does not exist anywhere or that it only involves money. They may also confuse limited resources with simply refusing to share.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Circle the two scarcity examples: 30 students with 20 markers, an empty playground at night, and five teams with two soccer balls. Explain one choice.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups 10 craft sticks and 15 request cards, then have them list the choices caused by the limited supply.
Ask students to write about a time something was unavailable for everyone and explain the choice people made.
Sort scenario cards into scarcity, not scarcity, or need more information, and require one reason for each choice.
Examine the class supply cabinet, choose one limited item, and explain how the class decides who uses it and when.
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Printable 3.6.B Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 3.6.B, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- 1.8
Economics. The student understands the condition of not being able to have all the goods and services one wants. The student is expected to:
- 1.8.A
identify examples of people wanting more than they can have;
- 1.7.A
identify examples of goods and services in the home, school, and community;
- 6.6.B
identify problems that may arise when one or more of the factors of production is in relatively short supply
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