Workbook 2 Activity 2

Activity 2: Economics and Me

Get Focused

• Create a list of items that your personal money went towards in the last month.
  
  
• Interview the members of your home, and make a list of what the family money went towards.
  
  
• Identify the items that your family spent money on that affected your daily life. Add these items to your list.

Using a highlighter, identify the items in your list that are goods, such as food, clothes, pens, and paper. Using a different colour highlighter, identify the items that are services, such as riding a city bus, using the skateboard park, or getting a haircut.

goods: things that someone wants or needs

service: something that someone does, or a performance of any duty or work for another, helpful or professional

A service may also include the provision of a public need and is not necessarily economic in origin.

Vocabulary

Go to the Issues for Canadians Definitions handout that you began in Workbook 1 and saved to your Activities folder.

Add definitions for goods and service to your handout.

Record your key word and definition on the handout. In the illustration box, use words, symbols, or pictures to help you remember your definitions.

Save your handout to your Activities folder.

 

Most families need to access certain goods and services every day. Money is an important part of the exchange for these goods and services. Money is an important part of our Canadian economy.

You use many goods and services every day.

Study the following images to discover a few goods and services that you may not have included in your list of goods and services. Add any new items to your list.

Save your list in your Activities folder.


Money makes the world go round. Every day, money exchanges hands all over the world. In Canada, your quality of life is influenced by this exchange of money. Money is the foundation of the Canadian economy. It ensures the exchange of goods and services. In your daily life, you use many goods and services. This might be the bus you ride to school, the textbook you use in class, the TV that you watch each evening, or the mall you shop at.

In this activity, you will begin to examine this question:

How does economics affect my daily life?