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Economic Spotter: Scarcity with the Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark expedition was filled with scarcity issues. They made life and death decisions based on scarcity. In this lesson, you will travel back to the early 1800's in a time machine and travel with Lewis and Clark. See if you can spot the economic concept of scarcity!
You will view a simulation on the National Geographic website. You will be asked to make choices at important points during the journey. You will keep a journal of the choices you made and note what was scarce in the choice situation. After the simulation, you will write a paragraph about your choices and the consequences of those choices.
Scarcity is the condition of not being able to have all the goods and services one wants. Scarcity is basically having unlimited wants, but limited resources. That really describes conditions during the journey of Lewis and Clark. Facing scarcity, those two explorers had to make some big choices based on considerations of scarcity.
Predict what Lewis and Clark might have wanted if they were able to have all the goods and services that money could buy in 1805.
Now look at the list. Why was there a scarcity of the items?
You should print this worksheet and answer the questions as you go through the website: www.usmint.gov/kids/timeMachine/
(This link requires the use of Internet Explorer, if you are not using Internet Explorer use this activity) 
1. When the raccoon hat became popular, what do you think happened to the raccoons in some areas? The human wants for the raccoon hat exceeded the available resources. So what choice did some hunters make?
2. On the river the men had trouble with the canoes because of a scarcity of a natural resource. What resource was that?
3. What choices did the men have when they thought there was going to be a scarcity of horses?
The choices people make have both present and future consequences. What would the consequences have been if Sacagawea had not been allowed to join the Corps of Discovery?
You have learned that scarcity is the condition of not being able to have all of the goods and services one wants. Scarcity exists because human wants exceed what can be made from all the available resources. The choices people make have both present and future consequences. Just think what America would be like if Lewis and Clark failed to make the choices they did!
You will view a simulation on the National Geographic website at: www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/west/ to see if you can make the correct choices to get the Lewis and Clark expedition to its destination. You will be asked to make choices at important times during the journey. Use the expedition journal you printed to keep track of the choices you made and note what was scarce in each situation. After the simulation, you will write a paragraph about your choices and what the consequences were.
Go back to the website: www.usmint.gov/kids/timeMachine/ and this time click on "Time Trackers" to discover the different kinds of money used in the story (plus other historical facts).
