Key:

Teaching Guide

Mission 1

Mission 2

Mission 3

Optional Activity:
Trade Conference

Links

Glossary

 
Optional Activity: Trade Conference

In this activity, you will participate in a trade conference with other members of your class. The purpose of the trade conference will be to work out trading arrangements that will satisfy each region's need for raw materials and resources. The goal is to develop the LEAST COMPLICATED trade arrangements necessary to ensure that the people who live in each region have the resources they need.

Phase 1: Conference Planning

  1. As a whole class, or in groups consisting of two representatives from each GeoTeam,  create a "minimal list of resources for self-sufficiency." The list should include all of the raw materials and resources the GeoTeams identified in Mission 2.
  2. Decide on an appropriate "unit of measure" for each resource. Units should be sufficiently large that no region will need more than 10 units of the resource.
  3. Create Resource Cards for each of the raw materials and resources on your list. See example. You should create as many cards for each resource as there are available in the entire United States. See links to acquire relevant information. Distribute the cards to each Region's geoteam in proportion to that region's availability of raw materials.
Phase 2: Conference Rules
  1. Appoint a "rules committee" to develop a set of procedures and rules for the trade conference. Members of the rules committee will facilitate discussions during the conference.
  2. The goal of the conference should be for each region's GeoTeam to negotiate a set of trade arrangements in which the region will give up extra raw materials in return for needed resources. 


Phase 3: Trading

  1. Conduct the conference.  The rules committee will facilitate the conference and ensure that negotiations are fair and open.
Phase 4: Debriefing
  1. Have a class discssion on the results of the trading. Did all the regions acquire sufficient resources? Why or why not?
  2. Did the class discover the least complex set of trade relationships that could be developed among the regions?  Why or why not?
Proceed to Mission 3.