Topic: Canada and It's Trading Partners Simulated World Market
Concept: Simulate the process of selling Canadian products to overseas buyers, and purchasing products from overseas sellers.
Give kids knowledge of products, countries, the process for buying and selling and a bunch of fake 1 000 000 dollar bills. Their task: to go "abroad" and purchase the goods that Canada will be importing this year. They will be equipped with an Importers Shopping List, clipboards and a hat that has a Canadian Flag on it. They make their trip to another country, which is actually a booth with a couple of people at it, and they offer to buy products that the country sells.
Another group will represent Canadian producers: exporters. These people will also travel abroad and sell Canadian products to countries that need them.
Each country has its own "market profile" of what it needs to sell, and what it needs to buy. Of course, there can only be so much product available, perhaps not quite enough to meet the demand... (need to think about this). For example, Canadian softwood lumber, or Canadian newsprint would be in demand in several countries. The Canadian exporters would shop around to get the best price.
Logo: SIM stands for Simulated, and also Simplified. It could also be an acronym that stands for Successful International Mission or something like that. How about we try to design a logo for the event? Who could we invite to watch? Who would we communicate what we learn to? Is this something that should be photographed or videotaped?
Research: Needs to be done by the teachers to boil down the international trade stats into digestible bits of information. The teachers must design the game from start to finish, and create a workable set of rules and parameters for all participants. Job descriptions need to be written for every role played. Each role has evaluation tied to it driven by learning expectations. Each participant must somehow demonstrate an understanding of "Canada and It's Trading Partners." They must each be familiar with the basic facts about the products and the processes of importing and exporting.
Interesting that the Curriculum Unit uses the word "Partners." Do we always view our customers and suppliers as partners? A business partner is someone who is on your side. But recently, the U. S. has been no partner of ours when they refuse to buy some of our products! This would be a higher thinking level question.
