JA Our Country - Alberta

Is it easy for businesses to bring new technologies to market and sell them to people? Businesses benefit from new products. 

In an auction, the auctioneer shows an item for sale, and the buyers bid by calling out the price they are willing to pay for the item. Buyers want to pay as little as possible, so they start with a low price and only increase it if someone offers a higher price. The person who ends up bidding the highest price purchases the item for sale. 

Money - Each student gets $20. Once their money is spent, they can no longer bid, so they should only bid on items they want. 

Feel free to use items from around the classroom for the mock auction.

Have the students research and present a newscast announcing a new technology that has been released recently, including the benefits of the new technology and the business that is marketing it. Have them record their newscasts using video or audio recording equipment and present their newscast to the class. Technology link: Have students ask parents or other family members what jobs they do, and what jobs their grandparents do (or did), and report back to the class. Then have the class use a spreadsheet or graphing program such as Excel to make a pie chart comparing the types of jobs that their parents do and the jobs that their grandparents do (or did). Have students bring to class examples of changes in technology, such as a fountain pen, a ballpoint pen and a gel pen, or a film camera, a Polaroid camera and a digital camera, and use a video recorder, presentation software or a hypertext program to make a presentation comparing the features of the changes in the technology.