QR Challenge: Production costs

Created using the ClassTools QR Treasure Hunt Generator

Teacher Notes

A. Prior to the lesson:

1. Arrange students into groups. Each group needs at least ONE person who has a mobile device.

2. If their phone camera doesn't automatically detect and decode QR codes, ask students to

• Download a QR reader (e.g. I-Nigma | NeoReader | Kaywa) onto their mobile devices
• Bring these devices into the lesson.

3. Print out the QR codes.

4. Cut them out and place them around your class / school.

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B. The lesson:

1. Give each group a clipboard and a piece of paper so they can write down the decoded questions and their answers to them.

2. Explain to the students that the codes are hidden around the school. Each team will get ONE point for each question they correctly decode and copy down onto their sheet, and a further TWO points if they can then provide the correct answer and write this down underneath the question.

3. Away they go! The winner is the first team to return with the most correct answers in the time available. This could be within a lesson, or during a lunchbreak, or even over several days!

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C. TIPS / OTHER IDEAS

4. A detailed case study in how to set up a successful QR Scavenger Hunt using this tool can be found here.

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Questions / Answers (teacher reference)

Question	Answer
1. 1. In microeconomics, the short run is defined as which of the following? a. A period of less than one year, b. a period that is between one and four years, c. a period that is too short for a firm to change its level of output, d. a period during which some inputs in a firm's production process cannot be change, e. a period during which a firm's fixed costs exceed its variable costs	d - in the short-run, the firm is stuck with at least one fixed input
2. 2. Beyond a certain level of output, the short-run marginal cost will rise because: a. there is no fixed input and costs will increase, b. at least one input is fixed and eventually diminishing returns will occur, c. the cost of the variable input increases when marginal product increases, d. the demand for the good decreases when production is limited, e. input prices increase when production increases and consumption is limited	b - MC rises not because the price of the input changes... it's because as total costs increase, the resulting change in Q (the marginal product) gets less and less big... which means diminishing returns to an input.
3. 3. If a single firm can produce and supply an entire market at a lower per unit cost than many small firms, the long-run average total cost must be (A) Increasing as firm size increase (B) Remaining constant as firm size increase (C) Decreasing as the firm’s output increase (D) Inelastic due to specialization (E) Constant and equal to marginal cost	3. C – question focuses on size or scale of operations (which is given by LRATC) – if LRATC is smaller when firm produces higher Q, then the curve must be decreasing
4. 4. In the short-run, which of the following is true of a firm's average total cost of production? a. it is equal to marginal cost plus average variable cost b. it is equal to marginal cost plus average fixed cost c. it is equal to average fixed cost plus average variable cost d. it always increases when a firm increases production e. it is zero if the firm shuts down	6. C – the distance between ATC and AVC is AFC. That’s why AVC starts to approach ATC as AFC falls dramatically. Plus, TC = FC + VC.
5. 5. If a firm's long run average total cost increases as output increases, the firm is experiencing: a. economies of scale b. diseconomies of scale c. increasing returns to scale d. efficiency in plant size e. maximum economic profit	36. B – If LRATC is rising if we increase Q, then we have to be in the diseconomies of scale portion of the curve. The curve always has that flattened “smile” or U shape.

 

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