Objectives

In this lesson, students will:

• To have students recognize the importance of the interdependence of countries through global commerce.
• To have students use maps to locate places, make decisions and estimate distances.
• To use and interpret graphs, data and charts to analysize and draw conclusions

Appropriate Grade Levels: 4 - 8

MSPP Outcomes:

Economics

• Explain how the exchange of goods and services connects Maryland with the world.
• Analyze historical and economic factors which have contributed to the growth and development of Maryland's economy.

Geography

• Locate places and natural features by interpreting and constructing maps using directions, legends, grid systems, boundary lines, and scales.
• Examine the impact of geography on the industrial growth and econmic prosperity of communities in the state, nation, and world.
• Examine how people of the state and nation are linked by transportation and communication networks.

Skills and Processes

• Obtain, interpret, organize and use print and non-print, sources of information such as pictures, graphics, maps, globes, and artifacts.
• Obtain, interpret, evaluate, organize, and use print and non-print sources of information such as maps, charts, globes, graphics, and tables.

Economics

• Using case studies, cite examples of economic interdependency among world communities.
• Relate the development and implementation of taxation to given historical and economic conditions.

Geography

• Locate places, cultural features, and natural features by interpreting and constructing maps using directions, legends, grid systems, boundary lines, scales, and political units.
• Analyze the influence of transportation and communication on the movement of people, goods, and ideas from place to place.

Teacher Background Information:

You will need to read and discuss this information with the class as an Introduction. Commerce and global interdependence are difficult words that will need to be pre-taught. If you choose, the concept of global market and re-exporting in Panama can be explored further.

Three other Web sites for teacher use are: Area Handbook on Panama, Lonley Planet - Destination Panama, and Panama Page by Felipe Tribaldos.

Materials Needed:

Prior to using the lesson with a class you will need to locate the Business Section of the Baltimore Sun for any Tuesday. Find the Maritime Report. Copy it and/or make it available for students working on that part of the lesson. If a recent Tuesday copy is not available, you may use the December 2, 1997 Maritime Report.

Other materials needed are:

• Paper & pencil
• Internet access
• World outline maps
• A Wall size world map and an atlas would be helpful.
• The "map reading tool" made in the Explorer's Lesson would be helpful, also.

Teaching Tips

• Be sure to have copies of the handouts available to the students before the lesson begins. Highlighters could be used for the Baltimore Maritime Reports. Each student needs a copy of the outline of the world map to manipulate. Some students may need an enlarged map of Central America to find Panama.

• The final project is the Scavenger Hunt. We hope that this will encourage participation from home. The project will be more meaningful if students keep a class world map to identify and mark the countries represented.

• A short Quiz has also been included with this Learning Adventure!

Motivation/Introduction

Read to or with Students:

Marketplaces have existed for thousands of years. Every small village always had a market where people could buy and sell things that they made and needed -- clothing, food, toys and housewares. As the villages grew into towns and the towns grew into cities, the marketplaces grew, also. These places became the crossroads of civilization. The real beginning of trade between Europe and the Far East came during the Middle Ages in about 1095. This was a time when people traveled great distances to fight in the Holy Land. The effects of the Crusades on the world's economy were tremendous.

By 1200 many new towns had grown up around marketplaces. Some people traveled along old Roman roads to conduct trade. Some people traveled along a trade route called "The Silk Road". These roads became the highways of commerce. Commerce is the buying and selling of goods.

Trade routes overland from China or by sea from the Indies were long and dangerous. In the 1400's, the control of commerce was by Muslim and Italian merchants. This made Asian goods very costly and caused Europeans to look for new routes to the East. An all-sea route seemed the most promising. European countries began to send explorers to discover new trade routes around the world. The seas became the highways of commerce and the lure of new trade routes motivated the rulers of many countries. You might remember the Portuguese sailor, Ferdinand Magellan. In 1519, Magellan and his crew were the first to sail completely around the world. Of course, back then they took the long way around the world; that was west from Europe, around the tip of South America, across the Pacific Ocean around the tip of Africa, then north into the Atlantic Ocean back to Europe.

Activities:

In this lesson, students will:

1. Use a world map and their map skills to retrace Magellan's voyage.

2. Use their world map and map skills to locate Central America and Panama

3. Use the scale on the map or their geographer's tools to measure the travel distance saved by going through the Panama Canal.

4. Use the Captain's Log to find out about Pride II's trip through the Panana Canal.

5. Use the The Baltimore Sun's The Baltimore Maritime Exchange Yearly Traffic Flag Summary Report for 1996 as a resource to investigate what ships and the flags they fly under sail into the port of Baltimore. There is a Web site activity planned in Part 3. Students may work cooperatively in pairs or groups. This is an easy site to use, but reveals a difficult concept. Guide elementary students to the idea of "re-exporting" in Panama. Basically, the Panama Canal free zone has become a huge wholesale marketplace.

   Possible answer: So many ships sail in the port of Baltimore under the Panama flag due to companies buying goods in Panama and sailing to other ports around the world.

6. Analyze and discuss the Baltimore Sun's Maritime Report. Elementary students can be led to a very lively discussion about the information in the report. There is a Maritime Report Worksheet available for more advanced or middle school students. Teachers may use the handout to provide guidance with the activity or to be completed indepedently by students.

   Students will use the The Baltimore Maritime Exchange Yearly Traffic Flag Summary Report for 1996 and what they learned in this lesson to determine what other countries could be crossroads for the global market.

Assignment:

This is the final activity. Students will apply what they have learned in the lesson to conducting a scavenger hunt in their own home. The activity will further increase their understanding of international commerce and the concept that everyday household items and clothing come from locations all over the world.

To introduce this activity, you should say to students:

By now you should realize that we have come along way from those earlier marketplaces. You buy and use some products that were produced thousands of miles away from your home and other products that were made nearby in your own state or country but use resources from other countries. To understand how we are all connected through this international commerce, conduct this last investigation.

Go on a scavenger hunt in your own home. Find as many items possible from different countries including the United States. They may include food, articles of clothing, household items or advertisements. Use the handout From What Country? When possible paste the country of origin tag in the column, if not write the item and country in the appropriate column. Use a world outline map to mark an X on each country represented.

Class Wall Map:

Make a class wall map using pins to represent items. Can you see a pattern?

Which region of the world has the most pins? Does this support your earlier activities?

Make this checklist available for the students:

How will you know you did a good job with your scavenger hunt?

If you have done the following:

• Completed the the From What Country? handout with at least 5 items listed
• Correctly marked your world outline map
• Drew conclusions based on these activities about international commerce
• Participated in the class's world map
• Shared what you have learned with someone at home

Extension Ideas
View the Lesson Extensions on this special page of the "Marketplaces" lesson.