Virginia SOL S.CE.g
The Standard
analyzing the costs and benefits and incentives and consequences of a specific choice using various economic decision-making models
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students compare choices by identifying costs, benefits, incentives, and likely consequences. They use models such as a cost-benefit chart or PACED grid, then justify the best option with evidence.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students separate immediate costs from longer-term consequences and recognize both financial and nonfinancial factors. They can explain why two models may support different choices when criteria or weights change.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often treat price as the only cost or assume every benefit involves money. They may confuse an incentive with a consequence, ignore opportunity cost, or choose first and adjust the model afterward.
How to Assess It
- Give this exit ticket: A school can buy tablets or library books with $2,000. Use a cost-benefit chart, identify one incentive and one consequence, then recommend an option.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups 20 budget tokens and option cards for a class celebration, then complete a cost-benefit matrix before spending.
Write a response to this prompt: Should the cafeteria offer discounts for reusable containers, and what consequences might follow?
Run a PACED relay where teams rank three transportation choices using assigned criteria, then defend their highest-scoring option.
Compare phone plans using printed price sheets, data limits, discounts, and cancellation fees, then select the best plan for a fictional family.
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Related Standards
- S.USII.g
using an economic decision-making model to analyze the costs and benefits and explain the incentives and consequences of a specific choice made in U.S. history
- S.WG.g
using economic decision-making models to analyze and explain the incentives for and consequences of a specific choice;
- S.VS.g
using economic decision-making models to make informed economic decisions and to explain the incentives and consequences of a specific choice
- S.USI.g
using economic decision-making models to make a decision and explain the incentives and consequences of a specific choice
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