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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

East Asian Trading Ships

Each student will work with a partner as an owner of an overseas shipping company with one cargo ship in East Asia. Students are given these instructions in the overview: In each Asian country that you travel to you will fill your cargo ship with items that you can buy from the list of exports. You will then try to sell these items when you travel to another country that is willing to import these commodities. The winner of the game is the company with the biggest profits at the end of the pretend 15 day time period. Good Luck!

A lesson plan for grade 7 Social Studies

By Tami Kaiser Polge

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

  1. know the location of East Asian countries and capitals.
  2. understand the importance of trade in this area of the world and the global market interdependence.
  3. understand the location of important natural resources and the effect that these resources have on the economies of countries in East Asia.
  4. analyze import and export charts.
  5. use cost analysis strategies and decide which countries to visit and where to conduct trade.
  6. determine the sale cost of an item by adding the percentage of profit to the fixed price of an item.
  7. fill out a balance sheet each day by adding their costs and subtracting this from their income.
  8. discuss the meaning of “supply and demand.”

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 week

Materials/resources

See the attached East Asia Cargo Ships packet in Word | Text for most of the handouts required below.

  • Map of East Asia with capital cities marked (not included).
  • List of products and fixed prices of each.
  • List of country imports and percentage profits for each.
  • List of country exports.
  • Blank Strategy sheet with proposed travel route.
  • Blank Balance sheets (one for each day and one for the starting day).

Technology resources

  • Calculators for each set of partners is not required, but would help.
  • Overhead projector for the teacher to show the students how to fill out their balance sheets is also helpful

Pre-activities

Students could read background information on East Asia trade. Excellent background reading and video clips are provided by the Southern Center for International Studies World in Transition series, especially the program on East Asia. By looking for relevant web sites, students could do much research on the computer about recent events in Hong Kong and East Asia.

Activities

Have students choose a partner and name their trading company. Make sure that each set of partners has a handout packet with all of the materials (see handouts and detailed instructions). Make transparencies of each of the handouts so that you can walk students through the steps of the simulation. To save paper, only make a class set of the instructions and charts. Try laminating the worksheets or clipping them into 3 ring clasps on folders to protect your class sets and have students only write on their balance sheets.

Assessment

Students could be quizzed on the countries and capitals. You could also have them demonstrate mastery of filling out the daily balance sheets. Have students check each other to make sure that they have worked out the math problems correctly and arrived at a correct total balance at the end of the 15 day period.

I definitely recommend debriefing on what strategies students used and what they found hard or easy. You should also discuss what students learned about the import and exports of these countries: Which items tended to be the most in supply (I made these the lowest profit items) and did this usually correspond to the items that were cheaper? Which items were most in demand? Which countries seemed more favorable for trade? Which were less?

Supplemental information

Related websites

I found a wealth of helpful, current information in the Ask Asia and East Asia Studies Center websites. They have lists of teacher resources, lesson plans and primary document student readings! Also see the Ask Asia Student section.

Modifications

Have students use a scale of miles on the map and calculate the distance from one country to another. You might also want to change the amount of time (10 days instead of 15 or weeks instead of days). Students could also add costs of fuel into their trips.

Comments

I have not yet scanned in a map because of copyrights, but I can suggest the Southern Center for International Studies for terrific maps and up to date materials.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 7

  • Goal 2: The learner will assess the relationship between physical environment and cultural characteristics of selected societies and regions of Africa, Asia, and Australia.
    • Objective 2.01: Identify key physical characteristics such as landforms, water forms, and climate and evaluate their influence on the development of cultures in selected African, Asian and Australian regions.
    • Objective 2.02: Describe factors that influence changes in distribution patterns of population, resources, and climate in selected regions of Africa, Asia, and Australia and evaluate their impact on the environment.
    • Objective 2.03: Examine factors such as climate change, location of resources, and environmental challenges that influence human migration and assess their significance in the development of selected cultures in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
  • Goal 4: The learner will identify significant patterns in the movement of people, goods, and ideas over time and place in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
    • Objective 4.01: Describe the patterns of and motives for migrations of people, and evaluate the impact on the political, economic, and social development of selected societies and regions.
    • Objective 4.02: Identify the main commodities of trade over time in selected areas of Africa, Asia,and Australia and evaluate their significance for the economic, political, and social development of cultures and regions.
  • Goal 5: The learner will evaluate the varied ways people of Africa, Asia, and Australia make decisions about the allocation and use of economic resources.
    • Objective 5.01: Describe the relationship between the location of natural resources, and economic development, and analyze the impact on selected cultures, countries, and regions in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
    • Objective 5.02: Examine the different economic systems, (traditional, command, and market), developed in selected societies in Africa, Asia, and Australia, and assess their effectiveness in meeting basic needs.
    • Objective 5.04: Describe the relationship between specialization and interdependence, and analyze its influence on the development of regional and global trade patterns.