Grade 10 -
Addressing Needs and Wants

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

• identify socio-economic factors that affect individuals and families as consumers
• demonstrate an awareness of the global implications of decisions that individuals and families make about their needs and wants
• describe the impact of leisure and career choices on family life
• describe and classify careers related to skills learned in home economics

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Addressing Needs and Wants in other grades click on an icon below.

Suggested Instructional Strategies

• Have students review newspapers, magazine articles, or Internet news web sites to identify factors that might affect the supply of consumer products (e.g., changing interest rates, unusual weather, new technology). Students should be able to explain how these factors could affect their own lives.
• As a class, brainstorm global implications of particular food or textile production practices (e.g., fur trapping; producing food using additives, antibiotics, or genetic engineering). Ask groups of students to each choose a production practice and identify alternatives. Have each group focus on the costs and benefits of each alternative associated with the chosen production practice.
• Have students use the Internet or other resources to locate individuals or agencies that offer advice on actions individuals can take to promote human rights, justice, and economic opportunities for families in other countries. Ask students in groups to critically assess the advice they are given.
• Provide students with profiles of various families in which the adults have made different career choices (e.g., two parents‹a retail salesperson and a truck driver with three children) or leisure choices (a single parent with two young children who enjoys distance running). For each situation, have students identify the opportunities and limitations associated with the choices by researching the likely income levels or costs, hours involved, and lifestyle implications.
• Instruct students to use the Internet or other resources to identify Canadian National Occupational Classification (NOC) categories related to skills developed in home economics. Students then write journal entries describing how the skills they have learned in home economics can be used in careers that interest them.

• Have students work in groups to create posters and information sheets about a specific consumer issue. Ask them to consider social, economic, and other factors that affect the issue; alternatives to current practices; and costs and benefits of each alternative. Have them also include recommendations for action. Work with students to develop assessment criteria for the posters such as:
  • information is accurate, relevant, and up to date
  • sufficient detail is presented to identify and clarify the issue
  • the role of individual and family consumers is clearly explained
  • potential costs and benefits of various proposals are realistic and logical
  • recommended actions follow logically from the analyses presented
  • Assess students' analyses of the opportunities and limitations associated with various families' career choices in terms of criteria such as:
  • accuracy and relevance
  • thoroughness and detail
  • use of appropriate data from credible research sources
• Frequently ask students to analyse the tasks or assignments they complete. Have them identify:
  • specific skills they've learned that may be useful in the workplace or in various careers
  • specific workplaces or career areas where these skills are valued
  From time to time, ask them to list the careers and workplaces they have identified and to group these in a variety of ways (e.g., by working conditions, education required, personal interest, skills required, status or income). Look for evidence that students are able to identify the workplace skills they are developing, to describe careers and workplaces related to home economics, and to classify careers in a variety of ways.

• Building Blocks to Better Relationships
• The Issues Collection
• The Living Family: A Canadian Perspective

• Secrets of Selling: How Stores Turn Shoppers into Buyers

(Note: It is anticipated that existing classroom and school materials will also be used to support the learning outcomes until additional learning resources are identified as part of Continuous Submission.)

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