This curriculum examines the types of decisions child welfare workers are required to make, the factors that influence their decision-making patterns, and various approaches that could potentially improve decision making on both an individual and organizational level. To further explore the issues surrounding decision making, the curriculum focuses specifically on Structured Decision Making® (SDM®), a model that can be used to assist social workers in making accurate and consistent decisions about the levels of risk for maltreatment found in families, to provide guidance about service provision, and to assist with reunification and permanency planning. In 1999, the State of California decided to make SDM® a required tool for child welfare agencies statewide, and SDM® has since been implemented in several counties, including Los Angeles. To explore the implementation and effects of SDM®and its implications on child welfare decision making, the authors conducted a multi-level study in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. The study addressed three central questions: (a) what are the challenges related to implementing the full SDM® model in the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), (b) what impact does implementation of the full SDM® model have on child welfare service delivery, and (c) what impact does implementation of the full SDM® model have on child permanency outcomes? (254 pages) Kim, A. K., Brooks, D., Kim, H., & Nissly, J. (2008).

The Maryland State Department of Education is working to prevent the misuse and abuse of opioids. This is a student-centered lesson for 3th grade students. This lesson, Substance Abuse and Making Healthy Choices, can be modified or remixed to meet the needs of the students you teach. The content of this lesson includes explaining by definition what is a drug. Students then learn drugs can come in many forms and can have different uses, and because of this students should not use drugs/medicine unless instructed to by a trusted adult. The content of this lesson is from Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

Success Strategies for the Adult Re-Entry Student integrates personal growth and values, academic study strategies and critical and creative thinking proficiency for adult reentry students, emphasizing the attainment of lifelong success in academic, professional, and personal development.

At College of the Canyons, this counseling course is COUNS 100 (3 units)

From changes in traditional foods to concerns of displacement from rising seas, this coastal community in the Pacific Northwest is assessing potential impacts to make decisions for their future.

One objective of 15.066J is to introduce modeling, optimization and simulation, as it applies to the study and analysis of manufacturing systems for decision support. The introduction of optimization models and algorithms provide a framework to think about a wide range of issues that arise in manufacturing systems. The second objective is to expose students to a wide range of applications for these methods and models, and to integrate this material with their introduction to operations management.

SLaM (Systems Leadership and Management) Praxis is a course is designed to introduce students to the dynamics of strategic decision making in corporate boardrooms through team exercises, simulations, and role playing. The case studies and team exercises will introduce students to strategy choices in the high tech sector, but these learnings are just as valid in other industries. We will also have invited guest speakers from the industry who have lived through difficult corporate situations and can provide insights into the cases discussed in class.

Traditional finance and other business courses analyze a broad spectrum of factors affecting business decision-making but typically give little systematic consideration to the role of taxes. In contrast, traditional tax accounting courses concentrate on administrative issues while ignoring the richness of the context in which tax factors operate. The objective of the course is to bridge this gap by providing a framework for recognizing tax planning opportunities and applying basic principles of tax strategy.

The study of economics is built on the foundation of three very important concepts: scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost. In this episode of the Economic Lowdown video series, economic education Coordinator Scott Wolla uses these three concepts to explain why there is no such thing as a free lunch.

What is economics and why should you spend your time learning it? After all, there are other disciplines you could be studying, and other ways you could be spending your time. As the Bring it Home feature just mentioned, making choices is at the heart of what economists study, and your decision to take this course is as much an economic decision as anything else.

Economics is probably not what you think it is. It is not primarily about money or finance. It is not primarily about business. It is not mathematics. What is it then? It is both a subject area and a way of viewing the world.

Students listen to the book Uncle Jed's Barbershop, about an African-American barber who, despite significant setbacks, saves enough money to buy his own barbershop. From the story, students learn about saving, savings goals, opportunity cost, and segregation. The students participate in a card game to further investigate what it takes to reach a savings goal.

Students will determine the costs, benefits, and unintended consequences of policies, beginning with analysis of a policy that would allow them to take two years off of school between grades 10 and 11. They will then analyze the costs, benefits, and unintended consequences of various government policies.

11.941 and 11.942 make up a one-year seminar. The goal of this seminar is to explore the role of science and scientists in ecosystems and natural resources management focusing on joint fact finding as a new approach to environmental policy-making. Increasingly scientists and science organizations are confronting a conundrum: Why is science often ignored in important societal decisions even as the call for decisions based on sound science escalates? One reason is that decision-making is often driven by a variety of nonscientific, adversarial, and stakeholder dynamics. Thus, even though science helps inform choices, it is only one of many values and interests considered by each stakeholder. In response to this emerging challenge, scientists, and science agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey, are embarking upon research that explores the problems of incorporating science into value-laden societal decisions. This research includes designing experiments that will assess the appropriateness of using the new and emerging approach of Joint Fact Finding to address some of the Nation’s most contentious environmental conflicts. In the first few sessions we will examine the problems of using science in environmental disputes. In following sessions, students will analyze and discuss cases that involved or that should have involved Joint Fact Finding of various kinds.

This course makes up the second half of a year-long seminar on Joint Fact Finding in Science-Intensive Disputes. In 11.941, the first half of the seminar, students analyzed and discussed cases that involved or that should have involved Joint Fact Finding of various kinds. In this portion, students concentrate on gathering information to assist in resolving the Cape Wind project, the dispute concerning the placement of wind farms in waters adjacent to Nantucket. Students will lay the groundwork for a collaborative project that includes Federal and State agencies, academic institutions and non-profits.

A quick lesson designed for PreK-2 on decision making. Specifically decision making using the stop, think, act model. 

This OER is a collection of case studies for discussions on ethical decision-making. It uses a variety of philosophies to determine how and if outcomes might have differed. This volume provides updated cases for students to discuss.

Students will use the U.S. Census Bureau’s QuickFacts data access tool to examine information about three cities, including population, education, and income data. Students will draw conclusions about life in those three cities to determine which city they would like to live in as an adult.

With prices of new vehicles at all-time highs, many buyers are looking for used vehicles. It can be challenging, though, to figure out what is or isn't a good deal. The September 2016 issue of Page One Economics explains why asymmetric information makes it difficult for used-car buyers to avoid "lemons" and why lemons are a larger problem for the used-car market.

This mini-unit follows an interdisciplinary unit where students read the novel Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. As part of the unit, students discussed the inherited trauma that the descendants of two half-sisters in the book, born during the 16th century in what is now present-day Ghana—one enslaved and the other married to a white enslaver—have been dealing with for several generations. Another major component of this novel is migration, as many of the characters move from one place to another in order to escape prejudice, violence, and unrest. While the characters from the novel who had been enslaved were forced to migrate, other characters chose to relocate for more opportunities, freedom, security, and safety.

The Workshop on Deliberative Democracy and Dispute Resolution, sponsored by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and The Flora and William Hewlett Foundation, is a two-day conference that brings together dispute resolution professionals and political theorists in the field of deliberative democracy.