Uncle Jed’s Barbershop
Objective
Students will be able to:
- Define opportunity cost,
- Identify the opportunity cost of a decision given two or more alternatives,
- Define saving and savings goal,
- Identify a savings goal
- Explain that people must make spending and saving choices to meet goals.
Standard
Standard: 14
- Students will understand that: Entrepreneurs take on the calculated risk of starting new businesses, either by embarking on new ventures similar to existing ones or by introducing new innovations. Entrepreneurial innovation is an important source of economic growth.
- Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Identify the risks and potential returns to entrepreneurship, as well as the skills necessary to engage in it. Understand the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation to economic growth, and how public policies affect incentives for and, consequently, the success of entrepreneurship in the United States.
Standard: 1
- Students will understand that: Productive resources are limited. Therefore, people cannot have all the goods and services they want; as a result, they must choose some things and give up others.
- Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Identify what they gain and what they give up when they make choices.
Standard: 3
- Students will understand that: People who have sufficient income can choose to save some of it for future uses such as emergencies or later purchases. Savings decisions depend on individual preferences and circumstances. Funds needed for transactions, bill-paying, or purchases, are commonly held in federally insured checking or savings accounts at financial institutions because these accounts offer easy access to their money and low risk. Interest rates, fees, and other account features vary by type of account and between financial institutions, with higher rates resulting in greater compound interest earned by savers.
Description
Students listen to the book Uncle Jed’s Barbershop, about an African American barber who, despite significant setbacks, saves enough money to buy his own barbershop. From the story, students learn about saving, savings goals, opportunity cost, and segregation. The students participate in a card game to further investigate what it takes to reach a savings goal.
Resources
We would like to thank the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for allowing us to link to this lesson. Download the pdf or access an interactive whiteboard (SMART/Notebook or ActivInspire/flipchart) lesson at https://www.stlouisfed.org/education/uncle-jeds-barbershop.
Visit Econ Lowdown TM , the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ website of award-winning free classroom resources for use by pre-K through college educators who teach economics, personal finance, money, banking and the Federal Reserve.