Resources

Defining resources

Resources: things people use to achieve a goal/s.

Specific Resources

Human Resources

Skills, abilities or talents of people

energy
knowledge
intelligence
sight
language
skills and abilities
motivation
initiative
cooperation
creativity
compassion
time
enthusiasm
confidence
commitment

Non Human Resources

Tangible or touchable objects

food
clothing
money
electricity
shelter
parks
cars
computers
musical instruments
household appliances

Human and non-human resources are interrelated. For example:

The human resource of knowledge is needed to use the non-human resource of money.
The human resource of time is needed to use and access the non human resource gyms, parks and leisure facilities.

Describe a range of resources and explain how they assist in satisfying specific needs (6 marks)

Activity: Response

"Describe a range of resources and explain how they assist in satisfying specific needs"

(6 marks).

Some ideas:

Paragraph 1: Resource one (money) → specific need (adequate standard of living)
Paragraph 2: Resource two (Motivation) → specific need (Health)
Paragraph 3: Resource three (computer) → specific need (Education)

WAGOLL

(what a good one looks like)

"Describe a range of resources and explain how they assist in satisfying specific needs"

Interchangeability of resources

Interchangeability is where one resource can be exchanged for another. In essence, it is the ability to trade resources for others that are of more value to you. For example:

A teacher earns a salary and may choose to use potential savings to employ a house cleaner. In this way, one person's money buys someone else's time and skills. The cleaner could use the money to meet basic needs or save for a family vacation.
parents can use money to pay for daycare so they have time to go to work and people can use their time to go to work so they can earn money.
An adolescent completes chores at home in exchange for their parents taking them for a driving lesson.

Propose how resources could be interchanged to enhance wellbeing in a variety of situations

Activity: Response

Describe how the resource you have chosen could be interchanged to enhance wellbeing. (5 marks)

Youth Allowance

Financial help if you’re 24 or younger and a student or Australian Apprentice, or 21 or younger and looking for work.

16 to 21 and looking for full time work
18 to 24 and studying full time
16 to 24 and doing a full time Australian Apprenticeship
16 to 17 and independent or needing to live away from home to study
16 to 17, studying full time and have completed year 12 or equivalent.

For example:

A Student could use a Youth Allowance payment(resource) to give them more time(resource) to work on their study rather than having to go to work for an extra shift. This may enhance their emotional wellbeing as they have more time to complete tasks , reducing their stress levels. This small amount of money can help pay for essential items like food (resource) if they are living independently this may enhance their physical wellbeing, often students who are living out of home with limited money may choose cheaper unhealthy food options, this money may allow a greater variety of foods to fuel their body and mind better for improved physical and cognitive wellbeing. The money could also be used to purchase textbooks (resource) for their Tafe or University course in exchange for the knowledge and skills (resources) that they will receive, this may enhance their cognitive wellbeing or also emotional wellbeing if they don't have to stress as much about the cost. This may also ultimately assist them in getting their qualifications which can potentially improve their economic wellbeing.

Choose 2 of the following to complete your own examples

- Time
- Language skills
- Old clothing
- A doctors knowledge
- A home

Resource Sustainability

Resource sustainability: to conserve a resource

Community Examples

Some non human resources can be partially or wholly consumed through use and are therefore considered non- renewable. Non- renewable resources need to be managed carefully to ensure that they are used to their best potential and not wasted. Limited supplies of forests and bush areas due to urbanisation, these can be protected through National Park schemes where these areas cannot be removed and they are maintained by the government organisations to allow the wildlife, flora and fauna to continue to thrive, to give the community natural spaces for recreation. Coal, Iron, uranium and other naturally occurring elements are mined for their uses in fuelling and building our society. Governments need to make decisions about how much mining they allow and where and if export is encouraged or discouraged through taxes or restrictions.
Effective resource management relies on people and governments to make carefully considered decisions on how, why and at what rate resources, can be used so that they can be sustained for prolonged use. This can ultimately affect the availability and quality of resources for future use. Will the government subsidise childcare payments for working parents, this allows more people to work or increase their days at work, providing more money for the family to utilise, which will also incur more taxes seeing a return of money to the government allowing for continued payments to childcare and or other essential areas of need.
If we are in a time of drought the government imposes water restrictions on communities to limit reckless use of water and ensure people are only using it for essential reasons so that dams are not emptied and people can get water when they need it. Some communities are looking at alternatives like desalination plants or recycling water.
Currently the use of single use plastics is being phased out in Australia, shopping bags have gone in large supermarkets, plastic cutlery and straws have gone from most shops these days. This is to sustain cleaner oceans, lots of plastics end up in the ocean and can be harmful to marine life, if one or more species of animal dies out as a result it can disrupt the food chain and impact other marine life too. This also reduces the amount of space needed to dump rubbish, if we are using recyclable materials they don't need landfill, they can be repurposed and there is also less need for the products and processes that are used to produce the plastics. Less harmful chemicals and pollution from their manufacturing. Sustaining our environment in more ways than one.
In school publishing assessments on Google Classroom as opposed to printing them for each student is an example of an environmentally sustainable practice.

Examples Individual of resource sustainability

Preparing a budget in order to monitor where money is spent so that it can be made to last longer and be used for more things.

Recycling plastic and paper items in your home

Freezing foods so that they can last longer

Donating and or buying clothes from Op shops or handing down items to friends or family.

Using and choosing to purchase electronics and household appliances that have a low energy or water use to run.

Record two examples of your own.

Outline strategies to conserve human and non-human resources

Activity One:

You are to create a case study detailing a situation where resources are finite or non renewable. Examples may include but should not be limited to:

a wilderness emergency situation
a household situation
an environmental issue.

You are to then switch you case study with another student and propose strategies to conserve the human and non human resources relevant to the scenario.

Example:

A school camp. Participants can conserve supplies such as water and food by rationing. They can conserve energy by ensuring adequate rest breaks, logical route planning and packing light. They can conserve the environment by ensuring minimal impact procedures are applied. They can sustain motivation by ensuring there is a variety of activities, rest, encouragement and freedom to enjoy the environment.

Activity Two:

Read the following scenarios and discuss strategies that could be implemented to interchange or sustain resources. Make a list of these strategies in your exercise book.

Mary and Joe have four young children. They have no family living nearby. Recently Joe became ill and has not been able to work. The family are suffering financially. Mary is unable to find work as she has to care for Joe and the children. The two older children have missed a lot of school because Mary has had difficulty looking after the house, Joe, and the children, without assistance. Mary has excellent computer skills and was employed in the accounting industry prior to having the children. The neighbour’s children attend the same school as Mary’s children
There has been a drought recently in the community of Broken Hill. Broken Hill is largely a farming area that provides most of its produce to the surrounding neighbourhoods. Broken Hill relies heavily on regular rainfall as they do not have any other form of irrigation for their crops. There is great community spirit with everyone offering their assistance to sustain the crops. Many of the people own farm equipment and machinery that could be used to assist the farmers. The community have written to large companies asking for their support to maintain the crops during the drought.

Consolidating questions

Exam style response questions:

Complete and submit the following two questions for marking

Describe ONE human and ONE non-human resource and explain how they can assist in satisfying specific needs (4 marks)
Propose how resources could be interchanged to enhance wellbeing (6 marks)

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