KEY POINTS:
• Trade often requires a series of transactions
• Even simple commodity products can be sourced from
many different places
ACTIVITY:
Research the materials and human resources used to create
a product
(grades 9-12, adjust expectations to grade level)
Trace
the transactions that are required to bring a common consumer
product to market.
As
individuals or as small teams, students choose a favorite
product that they use every day from one of these categories
(feel free to add others). Encourage students to choose products
made locally; students may wish to contact companies directly
to research their answers and invite a company representative
as a guest speaker.
| 1. |
Very simple non-mechanical consumer products such as toothbrushes,
pencils, CD’s, etc.
(A great product description of a simple object, as well
as a fun presentation of the information, can be found
at http://www.fee.org/about/ipencil.html
) |
| 2. |
Mechanical
products such as wind-up clocks and plastic toys |
| 3. |
Consumer
electronics (ideally choose something that is broken and
take it apart to see where the components come from—use
care!). |
| 4.
|
Packaged
food items (fruit juices, tuna fish, lunchmeats, etc.)
|
For
each product selected, students first research the following
questions:
What
components are contained within your product? Be sure
to list all the components. For very complicated products,
you might want to group components into categories. For example,
a computer circuit board might have hundreds of components
made in several different countries and assembled in yet a
different country. So you would list the circuit board as
one component, but for the next question you’d list all
of the types of materials used. For food products, be sure
to include packaging materials.
What
materials were used to create each component of your product?
Is the component made from plastic, steel, silicon chips,
copper wire, leather, tin or what? There may be several materials
in the component, and you’ll also need to be thinking
about where these materials come from and how they are made
as well.
What’s
the national origin of the materials that were used to create
each component of your product? Where does copper
come from, steel, iron ore, wheat and so on. Many raw materials
can be found in several different countries, and yet some
are found in surprisingly few countries. List all of the countries
that might be logical sources for the raw materials, and then
discuss why some might be more likely than others to be the
actual source for your product.
What
jobs are required to get your product into the hands of the
consumer (that’s you)? From beginning to end—think
about who gathers the basic raw materials, how those raw materials
get to where they need to be, the inventors who come up with
ideas for products, the people who make the equipment that
other people use to make the products, the people that create
the advertising that makes you want the product at all, the
people who transport he products, and the people who made
the vehicles that are used for transportation, the people
who sell you the product, and on and on.
What
jobs are needed to make these components and where are they
located? Think global (anywhere), national (be specific
as to which country), regional (your home region or state)
and local (where you live). For example, if you know that
oil was used in the creation of your product, then some of
those jobs are going to be global in nature—anywhere
in the world that there is oil. The person who created the
advertising that made you want to buy the product could be
anywhere in the nation, unless you know that they happen to
be in your particular region. But no matter where the product
came from or how it got there, the person who sold you that
product has a job in your local store.
Students create a chart similar to the following and present
the results to the class:
TOOTHBRUSH
| Components |
Materials |
National
Origin |
Jobs
required |
Job
locations |
|
Plastic Handle |
Crude
Oil
by-product |
Any
oil-producing country |
Oil
Exploration: geologist |
global |
 |
|
|
Oil
Drilling: Roughneck |
global |
|
|
|
oil
refinery workers |
regional |
|
|
|
plastics
workers |
regional |
|
|
|
people
that make the molding machines |
global |
|
|
|
Industrial
designer to create toothbrush |
national |
|
|
|
Marketing
people to advertise the brand |
national |
|
|
|
Transportation
workers |
national |
|
|
|
Retail
clerks in the store |
local |
In
addition to the chart, students might also want to utilize
maps to demonstrate the geographic distribution of the products
they analyze.
Suggestion
for Assessment
Grade on depth of exploration and accuracy of information
|
