Place popcorn into two lunch sacks and staple them closed. Place crumpled up newspaper in two additional paper lunch sacks. Staple the sacks closed. Give each student a receptacle to fill with popcorn. Tell students that the snack was donated and there seems to be enough for everybody. Call students by row to take as much popcorn as they desire. Give students additional receptacles to accommodate their desire. As the popcorn runs out, open the subsequent bags. Act surprised to find newspaper in the two of the sacks. Ask the students who have popcorn if they would have taken less popcorn if they knew there would not be enough for everyone. Challenge the students to come up with a solution to the shortage of popcorn. Relate the situation to real-life scarcity issues in society, such as the supply of oil.
Gather ten classroom items appropriate for the age group in your classroom. Vary the amount of each item. For example, gather enough of one item for every student to have one and but gather only enough for a few students to have another item. Set the items on a table in full display for the class. Tell the class how many are available of each item. Ask students to list the items in descending order according to what they personally desire most. Then ask the students to list the items in descending order based on what they think most of the other students will wish for most. Tell students to raise their hand when you call out the name of each item if they listed that item as their first choice. Engage the class in a discussion of why they listed the items the way they did. Discuss why students chose the scarcest items when there isn't enough for everyone. Relate the activity to resource items available for purchase on the market.
Drinking water grows increasingly scarce as the human population on Earth grows. Show students a map of the Earth that highlights population densities. Note whether populations tend to grow around bodies of water. Gather information about population growth rates. Gather data on histories of water shortages in Namibia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Ethiopia, Egypt, or Sudan. Ask students to analyze anticipated water shortages based on analysis of the data. Direct students to create a chart reflecting the results of their analysis. Discuss what types of conflict could arise in the United States if water shortages in the American Southwest worsen.
Divide students into two groups. Each group are producers. Provide students with scissors, glue and construction paper in the same amount. Each group must assess whether they can make more squares or triangles from the materials given. Let students know that they are not required to use the glue, but must make more triangles or squares than the other team. Choosing to make squares over triangles or vice versa relates to how humans choose to make one thing over another based on the available resources.