KEY POINTS:
• While people tend to pursue the best financial deal,
other interests or needs impact the actual practice of trade.
• All economic activity is subjective, creative and personal
as well as economic (including buying, selling, designing,
manufacturing and advertising).
ACTIVITY:
In-class trading exercise
(grades 7-12, adjust expectations to grade level)
Create
an in-class economy with one or two products, and hold several
trading rounds. Vary the rules for each round in order to
change the dynamics of trading and force the creation of special
and/or illogical relationships.
Have
the class choose two products that they want to trade. Define
who has what to trade and how much (place slips in a can to
draw, hold a lottery or in some other way randomly distribute
the products and quantities to groups of students).
Round
1—unfettered trading. Anyone can trade with anyone
else. This round establishes the equilibrium “price.”
How many scooters are worth one MP3 player, or how many apples
are worth how many bananas, etc.
Round
2—introduce special conditions. Instruct students
to choose a favorite color, which they keep a secret. They
have to buy and sell, at any price, with anyone wearing that
color. With everyone else, they can drive a hard bargain or
not trade at all.
Round
3—introduce another bias; an ancient feud between
people who wear t-shirts and people who don’t, one product
gets a reputation as being fattening (or super healthy), and
so on.
Check new prices and discuss how favoritism and market conditions
affect price.
Round
4—Announce unfettered trade again, but issue secret
messages to a few that announce one product is now very “hip”
and the other is “outsville.” Provide a bonus of
some kind for those who get the most of the now “hip”
product.
Check
new prices and discuss how fashion affects market conditions.
Teachers
and students should feel free to dream up new forms of bias
that can affect the way the trading interactions happen.
Other
discussion points might include:
• Ways to change what’s “popular” (marketing,
advertising, etc.)
• How people work together or seek to influence each
other to achieve mutually beneficial goals through trade.
Suggestions
for Assessment
This activity supplies much of its own assessment—students
will experience the consequences of their understanding of
trading.
Alternately,
assign a short paper that explains the potential impacts of
friendship, historical relationships (good and bad), changes
in fashion and marketing on the realities of trade and the
pricing of trade goods.
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