This Khan Academy video uses a simple example of a public fishing pond to illustrate the tragedy of the commons, which allows unprotected areas or resources to become depleted or destroyed by overuse.
The resource includes a video, a transcript, and an interactive quiz.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This is a simple example that helps students understand the need for regulations and protections for the things that no one owns but that everyone relies on, like air, water, and nature.
They suggest a solution: having some sort of permitting or restrictions established to protect these areas.
Additional Prerequisites
It may help to have students make a list of everything they can think of that isn't owned on Earth but could be used by many different people.
Differentiation
This video could be connected to topics such as competition, population density, ecosystem limits, and planning for future generations.
This video could be used to introduce different concepts of caring for the Earth and for the future, like those of many Indigenous cultures that live within their ecosystem's limits and think many generations ahead when making decisions.
There is nothing in this video that needs to be verified as scientifically accurate. The video clearly explains the concept of the tragedy of the commons. It can be useful in explaining how humans treat our atmosphere and biosphere.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-3 Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.13.9-12 Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.1.9-12 Analyze how incentives influence choices that may result in policies with a range of costs and benefits for different groups.
