Costs benefits and shared risk

Year 9 · Lesson 5 · Content 2026.11.02.1

All supplied-record lessons · Open interactive lesson

Supplied-record alternative. Enter your responses in your school assignment. These supplied results support learning but do not show that you ran an algorithm.

Your goal

Compare useful results, resources, people and shared failures before recommending a service.

To be able to recommend a service option using evidence about benefits, resource costs and shared risks.

Before you start

A free bus ride still uses fuel and staff. Which is an access price?

Choices: The fare paid / The fuel used

Bridge feedback after trying

A fare is a price. Fuel, electricity, equipment and work are resources even when access is free.

Words for this lesson

Compute: Calculation resources used to train or run a model.
Externality: A cost or benefit affecting others beyond the direct transaction.
Systemic risk: A shared failure spreading through connected services.

The idea

A zero access price does not mean zero resource cost. Training and repeated use need resources. Compare benefits with electricity, staff work and people affected. A shared provider can create a common failure point. State what an energy calculation includes before drawing conclusions. A smaller footprint inside one boundary does not measure every wider effect.

A completed example

Practice: 10 kWh training plus 2 kWh each week for 5 weeks gives 20 kWh. At an invented factor of 0.5 kg CO2e per kWh that is 10 kg CO2e within this boundary. Device manufacture is not included.

Check your understanding

kWh measures ...

Energy
Money
Accuracy

Practice feedback after trying

Energy. Keep the unit attached to the amount.

A zero access fee means ...

No stated access payment, while other costs remain
No electricity
No labour

Practice feedback after trying

No stated access payment, while other costs remain. Price and resources are different.

A shared provider outage means ...

Several dependent functions may fail together
Every system must fail
Accuracy scores rise

Practice feedback after trying

Several dependent functions may fail together. Check the actual dependencies and fallbacks.

Task 1 · Make a prediction

Most stated ten-week electricity

Options: A / B / C / Not sure

Write your prediction, or state that you skipped it.

Try it using supplied records

Predict which option will use most stated electricity over ten weeks.
Choose A, B or C. Build the calculation: weekly electricity x ten, then add training.
Apply the supplied fictional factor and calculate time saved. Show units at every step.
Compare the complete result table and reveal who benefits, who does work and the common-provider outage card.

Calculated project totals · invented energy allocations

Complete data and source records

Fictional ten week project. Fictional teaching data.
Option	Training allocation in kWh	Running kWh per week	Correct out of 100	Staff minutes saved per week
A shared cloud	120	6	96	280
B smaller local	20	4	94	200
C current computer-supported manual process	0	1	98	0

Read as stacked records

Option: A shared cloud
Training allocation in kWh: 120
Running kWh per week: 6
Correct out of 100: 96
Staff minutes saved per week: 280

Option: B smaller local
Training allocation in kWh: 20
Running kWh per week: 4
Correct out of 100: 94
Staff minutes saved per week: 200

Option: C current computer-supported manual process
Training allocation in kWh: 0
Running kWh per week: 1
Correct out of 100: 98
Staff minutes saved per week: 0

Project assumptions. Fictional teaching data.
Item	Value
Duration	10 weeks
Emissions factor	0.4 kg CO2e per kWh, invented for arithmetic, not a UAE grid claim
Boundary	Stated training and running electricity allocation only; excludes device manufacture, networks and staff travel
Narrow pilot criterion	At least 93 correct in a representative 100-case test and an available manual review route; invented classroom brief

Read as stacked records

Item: Duration
Value: 10 weeks

Item: Emissions factor
Value: 0.4 kg CO2e per kWh, invented for arithmetic, not a UAE grid claim

Item: Boundary
Value: Stated training and running electricity allocation only; excludes device manufacture, networks and staff travel

Item: Narrow pilot criterion
Value: At least 93 correct in a representative 100-case test and an available manual review route; invented classroom brief

People and dependency cards. Fictional teaching data.
Card	Evidence
A	No school access fee for the trial. Same provider supplies functions for three other school services; its outage may affect all four provider functions.
B	Needs local IT update skills and has a manual alternative.
C	Existing baseline still uses staff time and computer electricity. Zero saved time is not zero work.
Labour	Both model options need approved data preparation and checking. Contracted annotation is a direct cost; wider working-condition harms need separate evidence.

Read as stacked records

Card: A
Evidence: No school access fee for the trial. Same provider supplies functions for three other school services; its outage may affect all four provider functions.

Card: B
Evidence: Needs local IT update skills and has a manual alternative.

Card: C
Evidence: Existing baseline still uses staff time and computer electricity. Zero saved time is not zero work.

Card: Labour
Evidence: Both model options need approved data preparation and checking. Contracted annotation is a direct cost; wider working-condition harms need separate evidence.

Expected results · supplied

These are supplied reference results. They are separate from your own explanation. No code needs to run to read them.

1. totalEnergy=training+weeks*weeklyRunning; estimatedEmissions=totalEnergy*0.4; timeSaved=weeks*weeklySaved. A running60,total180,72kg,2800min; B40,60,24kg,2000min; C10,10,4kg,0min saved. All meet narrow correctness criterion but A manual review route is not established by its card and must be specified before a pilot.

2. Core weeks fixed at ten. Optional extension changes weeks from 1 to 30, clearly marked a new scenario; update every total, unit and export record together. Restore ten on Reset. Do not infer carbon per real prompt from this dataset.

3. Stakeholder prompts cover pupils, staff, data workers, IT staff and people beyond the transaction. A contracted fee is a direct cost; pollution affecting other people is a possible external effect. Recommendations are rubric-assessed and may reasonably differ.

Help with this step

Hint 1

Keep electricity, emissions and saved time in different columns.

Hint 2

Multiply weekly use by ten before adding the one-off training allocation.

Hint 3

Practice: 5 kWh training plus 1 kWh for 4 weeks equals 9 kWh. Zero time saved means the baseline has not changed, not that no one works.

Task 2 · Use the evidence

Recommend a limited pilot, the existing process or further comparison using usefulness, resources and time evidence.
Name a direct cost, a possible external effect and a shared dependency.
State the calculation boundary, a missing piece of evidence and a manual fallback.

My explanation

Write in your school assignment. Keep these answers in your own words.

Option A

Running electricity (kWh)
Total electricity (kWh)
Estimated emissions (kg CO2e)
Saved time (minutes)

Option B

Running electricity (kWh)
Total electricity (kWh)
Estimated emissions (kg CO2e)
Saved time (minutes)

Option C

Running electricity (kWh)
Total electricity (kWh)
Estimated emissions (kg CO2e)
Saved time (minutes)

Recommendation

Choice: A / B / C / Further comparison
Explanation

People affected: Pupils

Benefit
Cost or risk
Direct or possible external effect: Direct / Possible external effect / Both / More evidence needed

People affected: Staff

Benefit
Cost or risk
Direct or possible external effect: Direct / Possible external effect / Both / More evidence needed

People affected: Data workers

Benefit
Cost or risk
Direct or possible external effect: Direct / Possible external effect / Both / More evidence needed

People affected: IT staff

Benefit
Cost or risk
Direct or possible external effect: Direct / Possible external effect / Both / More evidence needed

People affected: People beyond the transaction

Benefit
Cost or risk
Direct or possible external effect: Direct / Possible external effect / Both / More evidence needed

Your explanation

My dependency and fallback
Calculation boundary and missing evidence

Explain a fresh example

Recommend one option or further testing for this ten-week project. Use a benefit, a resource result, an affected group, a dependency or fallback, and one limit.

My confidence

I need another explanation / I can explain with help / I can explain with my own example

My next step

Write what you will do next.

Optional depth

Change duration in the extension. Which costs accumulate? What else would you need for a genuine whole-service environmental comparison?

What this activity can show

These energy allocations and factor are invented. The result is not a full footprint, a real price comparison or evidence about a named provider. Paid work is not automatically an externality.

This is a student learning record. Submission is completed through the school assignment system.