Globalization and the Materials Economy

Role on the Wall 15 MIN

Facilitator will pass out one Post-It note to each student in the class and ask them to hold onto it.

We’re going to think a little bit together about the role of individual people in that process. The video mentioned some of the ways people are affected by this economy and some of the things they can do to make it better for themselves and for the planet. We’re going to take that a step further and think about some of the reasons people make the choices about consuming the goods that they do.

Everyone should have a Post-It at your desk. Take about a minute to think about an EXTERNAL PRESSURE that might influence a consumer’s decision to purchase or not purchase something. Can someone remind me what a consumer is? [Talk about a definition of “external pressures” if necessary.] Once you have an idea of something that influences people’s decisions to buy something, write it down on your Post-It note. It can just be a word or a couple of words. Then, come stick your Post-It note outside the figure’s head. [Allow time for students to do this.]

Great. Thank you for your thoughts and your participation. I’m going to read through a few of these ideas so we can all hear them. [Read Post-Its aloud.]

Excellent ideas. Now, we are going to talk together about some INTERNAL things that influence consumer’s choices. So this person, representing a consumer, is probably thinking about things as they are going to buy a product or a number of products. What might some of these things be?

[Take student suggestions, write them inside the ROTW figure in one color.]

Excellent. Now, the video showed us some pretty scary downfalls of us buying a lot of stuff. What were some of those negative effects? [Take student suggestions here.] Okay. So thinking about those things, what are some ways you as a consumer could think about purchasing products differently to help with those effects? For example, I might try to buy less food that is packaged in plastic. [Write these ideas on the ROTW figure in a different color, preferably green.]

Transition: Excellent, everyone. Thank you for your thoughts. I’d love to encourage you to think about some of those great ideas the next time you are choosing something to buy.

Alphabet Relay 15 MIN

Divide students into 4 teams.

We’re going to end our lesson today with a game called Alphabet Relay. This will help us review what we talked about in the video and also think about ways the economy and the way that goods travel around the world affect our lives.

Each team will have a piece of paper with the alphabet written on it, like this [show example]. Each team will get into a line and the first person will have a marker. When I say “GO,” the first person will go to the poster, write something that answers the prompt that starts with an A then go back and hand the marker to the second person and go to the back of the line. The next person will write something that starts with a B, and so on. So for example, if the prompt was “animals,” I might write “Aardvark,” then hand the marker off to the next person who could write “bear.” You have to go in alphabetical order! If you’re having trouble, your team can help you with suggestions. Be creative, and pull information from your own experience as well as the video and the reading you’ve been doing. Your prompt is “the material economy.” Your goal is to get through all of the letters as quickly as possible.

Divide students into teams and get in four lines next to the posters. Once everyone is in a team, get the game started.

Possible Side-Coaching:

• You can help your teammates if they get stuck!

• Make sure you are going to the end of the line when you’re finished.

• We want to keep this really positive, so think of ways you can be supportive to your team.

• Try to keep your voices quiet so the other teams don’t hear your ideas!

Either do a gallery walk so the groups can see the other groups' work or briefly process and synthesize answers from all four groups. Questions to ask students:

• What do you notice that our posters have in common?

• What answers surprised you?

• Which of these items do you think affect people in other countries or places in the world? How is the effect between the developed work and the developing world?