Playing Economics

Nowadays the importance of being economically literate is undeniable. That is why the students are taught the basics of economics at school. We have to agree though that sometimes learning the theory is no fun and does not have the desirable results. The teacher of economics has thought of a good way to present one fun activity to make students understand the basics of trading more easily. The teacher and the students play a game during the lessons of economics. They pretend that they produce a toy and sell it. During the lesson the students learn how to calculate the cost of the production and the profit. You can only imagine how fun it is for the students to see how big their profit would be. 

Toy production

The task:

Step 1: Divide the students into teams-"enterprises". Choose one member of a team who will be responsible for bookkeeping and one team member who will be responsible for the presentation of the toy which has been produced.

During 15-20 minutes your enterprise has to make one toy which will be sold for 5 €. In order to make the toy, you have to use at least 3 items from the list (the list the production resources cost). The toy has to be durable and of good quality. The members of the enterprise have to prepare a short presentation of the product. Calculate the cost of the toy production. (Mark the data in the list provided).

Step 2: The enterprise gives a brief presentation of the product and puts it next to the other products on the table.

Step 3: Every student has 5 € each. They put the money next to the toy they would buy.

Step 4: Calculate the profit of the enterprise. 

The list of the  production resources cost:

Resources	Cost	Used resources for toy production (mark how many units have been used)	The cost of used resources
Workforce  (1 employee )	0,25
Workplace rent	0,70	1 table	0,70
Glue pen	0,30
Colour pen/ marker	0,20
Scissors	0,40
Plastic plate	0,30
Colour paper 1 sheet	0,10
Plastic glass	0,30
Sticky note (small)	0.10
Sticky note (big)	0,20
Drawing pins different 2 pins	0,10
Envelope	0,10
Paper clips 2 paper clips	0,10
Paper napkin	0,10
Sticky tape	0,40
Sponge	0,50
Cotton disks, 2 units	0,10
Pencil	0,10
Toy production cost
PROFIT FOR ONE TOY
GROSS PROFIT

Arts and Crafts. The project "A Message to the World"

In the lessons teachers always try to teach the students certain skills such as solving a problem in mathematics, writing an essay in Lithuanian, knowing the dates of different battles in history or making different things in arts and crafts lessons.

Our teacher Vilija thought that during arts and crafts lessons students could do something meaningful, something that would help us to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of  the independence of Lithuania. The students were given a task to make a piece of work using different techniques. 

The aims of the task:

• to unite students’ efforts and creative potential which would lead to a bigger motivation for keeping Lithuanian history alive;
• to develop students’ basic and technical skills, as well as civic, cultural and artistic skills;
• to encourage students to realize their abilities, a wish to learn about Lithuanian traditions, cultural herritage;
• let students’ choose the techniques themselves.

The requirements:

• Artworks have to be prepared using different technologies and techniques;
• Artworks have to be aesthetic and ready to be exhibited;
• There should be a white paper tag saying the title and the author attached to the artwork.

In order to complete the task correctly, students had to research into Lithuania’s culture, customs and traditions which helped the students to achieve their aim. This innovative way of learning helped the students not only to learn a lot about our old traditions but also to learn their own limits. The students were very inventive. They used different techniques (like drawing, knitting, embroidering, carving, sewing and many more) and most importantly their imagination was not limited. They created wonderful pieces of work thus showing that putting knowledge and creativity together they could step out of their comfort zone and made something new, beautiful and unexpected. The teacher’s role here was simple: to guide the students, help them with advice but not limit their imagination.

As an outcome, students’ art works were exhibited to commemorate 100 years of the independence of Lithuania.