Overview:

The lesson plans following on this website have been created for a unit in
Business Studies that focuses on personal finance management and the
behaviour of consumers. This unit also has a significant maths curriculum based
component integrated into a number of the activities to be completed by
students as part of their inquiry. This unit has a strong focus on the integration of
various ICT components into the lessons. Each lesson, students will require
access to a laptop or personal computer - either individually or as part of a
group. In addition, access for the teacher to an interactive whiteboard would be
beneficial.
To aid both the students involved in, and the teacher of this unit of lesson,
all online resources that are required for each lesson (YouTube videos, links to
online games and links to useful websites etc.) have been included under the tab
to the lesson that each relates to. It is hoped that this will be a useful resource
that both teachers and students will be able to access to find all required
resources and information in one clear and organised site.
The lessons have been developed for year levels 5 to 6 in mind and as
such, have been closely linked to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authoritys curriculum for both Mathematics and Economics and
Business Studies (ACARA, 2013) for these year levels.
The key questions of inquiry that are relevant to this lesson sequence, as
defined by ACARA are:

Why do I have to make choices as a consumer and what influences the

decisions I make? (ACARA, 2013)
Why are there tradeoffs associated with making decisions and what are
the possible effects of my consumer and financial choices? (ACARA, 2013)

In addition, the lessons have been planned with a view to incorporate

students utilising skills as recommended by ACARA for both Economics and
Business and Mathematics for years 5-6. Some examples of the key skills that
are incorporated into the majority of these lessons are:

Identify alternative responses to an issue or event, and consider the

advantages and disadvantages of preferring one to others (ACHES014)
Apply economics and business knowledge and skills in familiar
situations(ACHES015)
Identify alternative responses to an issue or event, and consider the
advantages and disadvantages of preferring one to others (ACHES006)
Investigate everyday situations that use integers (ACMNA124)
Solve problems involving multiplication of large numbers by one- or
two-digit numbers using efficient mental, written strategies and
appropriate digital technologies (ACMNA100)

Focus will also be on the cross-curricular recommendation by ACARA for

Economics and Business that requires students to develop the necessary
knowledge for them to act in ways that contribute to more sustainable patterns

Blake Watherston

s282796

EST204 Assignment 2

Overview:
of living (ACARA, 2013), a theme which is thoroughly highlight throughout each
lesson.
The first lesson, students will be introduced to the concepts and difference
between needs and wants - as people we need to make choices on what our
personal needs and wants are, based on the limited resources we have. The ICT
component of this lesson has students utilising a laptop or a PC to work together
in a group of two, to complete an online activity in which they need to ascertain
which products are either a need or a want.
During the second lesson students will gain an insight into why consumers
make the choices that they do and what they might base their decisions on. How
companies utilise advertising and other marketing strategies to manipulate
consumer decisions will be investigated - students will use laptops/PCs to utilise
the internet to analyse online advertising to determine how companies attempt
to influence the decisions that consumers make, try to convince them to choose
their product over another.
The third lesson encompasses students learning about the importance of
budgeting, along with the importance of not spending more than what they earn
or what is necessary. Students are given the opportunity to test these skills in a
real life scenario, attempting activities based around budgeting for mobile phone
plans. Students will utilise a PC/laptop to form groups of 2-3 to work
collaboratively on an online activity which has students recommending strategies
for reducing mobile phone usage costs.
The final lesson in the unit is a combination of a practical lesson and
assessment task. Students will utilise a PC or laptop to research online websites
via PC/laptops to calculate costs of travelling overseas, in order to find the
cheapest, fastest and most efficient way to achieve the objectives of the task.
Students will utilise a spreadsheet in MS Excel to help classify and calculate their
overall costs. The final assessment involves students drafting a brief report
explaining/justifying the reasons that have selected a particular option.

Blake Watherston

s282796

EST204 Assignment 2