Austin's City Limits

• Preparation and Introduction

  Learning Progression

  In this lesson, learners will:

  1. Explore the city of Austina and the budget process in Austin
  2. Begin brainstorming ideas for their budget project and start exploring the budget game they'll play
  3. Reflect on their learning

  Scaffolding and Resources

  In the previous lesson learners explored both individual and city budgets. In this lesson learners will begin examining the city of Austin and Austin's budget in more detail.

  Preparation Instructions and Facilitation Tips

  You can print out the worksheets or have your learners complete them online depending on your technology situation.

  Divide your learners into cooperative learning groups to complete the activities.

  Vocabulary

  • Budget
  • Revenue
  • Expenditure
  • Property Taxes
  • Public Utilities
  • Service Fees
  • Sales Tax

• Activities

  80 minutes

  Warm-Up Activity 1 - 35 minutes

  • Divide learners into groups.
  • Learners will read the Austin Fact Sheet, a general introduction about the city of Austin, its local government, and some of the current statistics that will be relevant to this project.
  • Learners will write down 10 fast facts about Austin and will sort their facts into categories, such as tourism or public safety.
  • Learners will answer questions on their Austin Fact Sheet Worksheet which require them to further examine what they learned about Austin, the perspective that was shared, and trends and themes found throughout the report.
  • Have learners discuss and share their findings.
  • Tip: have learners read aloud to each other to facilitate understanding.

  Activity 2 - 25 minutes

  • Learners will look at multiple articles that offer perspectives from local leaders on the budget and its challenges. The first article (Council Confronts Touch Budgeting Decisions) will be examined by the entire class. Learners will answer questions about the article.
  • Learners will get back in their groups and will look at four articles that offer additional insight surrounding Austin’s budget. Each student will read a different article and become an expert on their reading, while completing the Article Jigsaw worksheet.
  • Learners will share their findings with their group members, and they will all work together to answer the culminating questions in their Jigsaw worksheet.

  Activity 3 - 20 minutes

  • With their groups, students will look at the City of Austin dashboard. This will be a key tool for them to use as they are planning their budget in future classes. This chart provides a basic and clear way for students to quickly analyze where the city is doing well, and what it needs to improve on.
  • Students will look over the dashboard data and measures, and individually take notes as they discuss key take-aways from the dashboard together.
  • Tip: They will need to reference back to their Austin Fact Sheet for this activity

• Reflection and Assessment

  10 minutes

  Closing Activity and Reflection

  • Have all learners come back together and have each group share out an observation.
  • Learners will begin to look at the budget game that they will play over the next class periods by logging on to the website in their groups and beginning to browse its features. Over the next class periods, they will work with their cooperative learning group to create a budget that they think best fits Austin’s needs.
  • In their groups they will get a base familiarity with the budget game platform, its features, how to access different parts of the budget, and how they will begin to build their own.
  • They will write down five take-aways before they leave.
  Next activity→Creating a Budget, Part I