BIZ-OMICS  |  The Resilience Kit — Teacher Console
Setup
A-LEVEL ECONOMICS  ·  BOARDROOM SERIES  ·  50-MINUTE COMPETITION

The Resilience Kit

An introduction to the basic economic problem for students new to economics. Four rounds plus a bonus round — teams compete live, scores are entered by dropdown, and a league table and podium build as you go.
NATIONAL RESILIENCE BULLETIN

The scenario

In August 2026, the UK government's Cabinet Office announced a new campaign urging households to stock up on tinned food, bottled water and other basic supplies, in case of extreme weather or disruption caused by hostile states — part of an update to the country's civil resilience planning.

Read the real story on The Guardian →

Teams play households racing to build the best resilience kit while learning three big ideas that sit underneath almost everything in economics.

Before you start: three key words

Scarcity — there is never enough of something to give everyone as much as they want. In this game, the money and the shop's stock are both limited.

Choice — because of scarcity, every person and every household has to choose what to have and what to go without.

Opportunity cost — the opportunity cost of a choice is the next-best thing you gave up to make it. If a team buys a torch instead of a first aid kit, the opportunity cost of the torch is the first aid kit.

It's worth putting these three words on the board before Round 1 — the whole game is designed to make students use them, not just define them.

Round map

Round 1 · Know the Threat (20) — Round 2 · Build the Kit (20) — Round 3 · Panic at the Shelves (20) — Round 4 · The COBRA Briefing (20) — Bonus · Real World Recall (20). 100 points total.

Set up your teams

ROUND 1 · 20 POINTS

Know the Threat

Warm-up round. Each team matches four real situations from the crisis to one of the three key words: Scarcity, Choice, or Opportunity cost. 5 points per correct match. Keep the definitions on the board — this round is about using the words, not memorising them.
ROUND 2 · 20 POINTS

Build the Kit

ROUND 3 · 20 POINTS

Panic at the Shelves

ROUND 4 · 20 POINTS

The COBRA Briefing

Speaking round. Each team picks a policy position, then a spokesperson explains why in front of the class. There's no single correct answer here — mark on whether they give a real reason, ideally using one of today's key words, not on which option they tick.
BONUS · 20 POINTS

Real World Recall

Quickfire. Four questions on the real story behind this game. 5 points each.
COMPETITION COMPLETE

Final Results

Podium

Full league table

Concepts in this competition show

ScarcityNo team's budget could cover all eight items — there was never enough money to get everything everyone wanted.
Choice & opportunity costEvery item bought was an item not bought. Round 1 named this idea; Rounds 2 and 3 made teams actually do it.
Why prices went upThe simple version: everyone tried to buy the same things at once, so the price rose. The fuller version, worth giving A-level students: a sudden rise in demand — with supply unchanged — creates excess demand at the old price; the price rises until quantity demanded falls back in line with quantity supplied. "High demand = shops just put prices up" is the simplified rule the game teaches by feel; the debrief is where you upgrade it.
Who decides who gets whatIn this game, price and household choice decided who got supplies — nobody was in charge of sharing them out fairly. Round 4 asked teams whether that's the best way, or whether government should step in and ration supplies directly.

Reflection questions

  1. Define scarcity, using an example from today's game.
  2. Describe one choice your team made in Round 2, and what its opportunity cost was.
  3. Explain, using the words "supply" and "demand", why the prices of tinned food, bottled water and torches rose in Round 3.
  4. Predict what would happen to the price of bottled water if a heatwave made everyone want to buy it, but supermarkets couldn't get any more delivered. Think about what that would signal to water producers, what incentive it would give them, and what happens to price when demand suddenly outstrips supply.
  5. Discuss whether you think it's better for households to buy their own supplies, or for the government to hand supplies out directly.
  6. Explain why some retailers have warned people not to bulk-buy during stockpiling campaigns like this one — think about herd behaviour, and who ends up losing out.
Scenario based on the UK Cabinet Office's August 2026 national resilience campaign, reported by The Guardian, 25 August 2026.