Trade-Offs — Season 1, Episode 3: We Decide
Family, Kids • 30 min • 1 season, 15 episodes
Episode synopsis
When a school discovers it doesn’t have enough bike‑rack spaces for all the students who ride to class, one group must figure out a fair way to assign the limited spots. As they debate alternatives—first‑come‑first‑served, taking turns, a lottery, longest use, or giving priority to those who live farthest away—they learn how to list options, set criteria, and evaluate trade‑offs. The episode shows how a class uses the five‑step decision‑making model to reach a solution everyone can vote on.
About Trade-Offs
Trade-offs was an AIT program designed to improve economics instruction in the United States and Canadian schools. The series of fifteen lessons, for children from 9-13, helped students think their way through economic problems and increased their understanding of economics. On a broader scale, it helped them become more effective decision makers and ultimately more responsible citizens. Each lesson consists of a 20-minute color television/film program plus teacher's guide material to facilitate classroom follow-up. Each program begins with a short segment that identifies key points that students and teachers should watch for. This is followed by the dramatization of a fundamental economic problem relevant to the daily life of the student. Special visuals emphasize the economic principles and reasoning processes involved. The last portion of the program introduces, but does not resolve, another problem, and ends by posing a question to the viewers.