Overview
When we think of parks, we probably think of public parks, government owned, managed, and maintained. But are all public parks managed and maintained by the government? It seems as though some aren’t maintained at all. This segment looks at the role entrepreneurs can play in public parks.

Enter your email address below to access these resources

To help ensure our emails reach your inbox, you may provide a personal email address to bypass school spam filters.

Lesson Insights

Grade level and subjects
• Recommended for grades 6-12
• Subjects: Business and Government
• Works in Classroom, Hybrid, and Homeschool settings

What students will learn
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
• discuss problems associated with park maintenance;
• explain some people’s preconceived notions of the private sector’s involvement with public parks; and
• evaluate the potential effects of private park management and maintenance.

Sample discussion questions
• Why do parks exist?
• What matters more, who maintains them or that they are well-maintained? Explain.
• When the woman at the beginning of the video said that if parks were private, “they’d probably charge you a fee for looking,” did she have a misunderstanding of the role of private businesses in public parks? Explain.
• What prevents the private business from charging the government too much money?
• Why not just raise taxes and spend that extra money on parks?

What’s in the free teacher’s guide
This printable 8-page Teacher's Guide includes a lesson description, learning objectives, a fill-in viewing guide with answer key, discussion and analysis questions, and classroom activities.

Standards alignment
Aligned to state standards — use the SITC Standards Tool to match this video to the standards in your state.