Students will identify groups and individuals who may benefit and those who may be left out of the wealth-creation that accompanies increasing international trade.
Students investigate the institutional parameters of competition for water by studying the formal definitions of water rights in American history as the law evolved to accommodate changing wants and needs. Using real-world examples, they consider how different legal structures affect the ability of citizens to resolve disputes amicably, and they learn how government can play a role in promoting mutually beneficial resolutions of environmental disputes.
This article offers a compilation of findings about the impact of trade on the environment and focuses on the two main concerns of environmental activists: Does international trade increase pollution? Is international trade responsible for resource depletion?
Students will consider the costs and benefits to both the buyers and sellers of trash. In the debriefing, they will transfer their understanding of the trash exchange to the environmental issue of trade between developed and developing countries.
Students will examine what institutional arrangements can reduce conflict and allow us to best meet changing demands for water.
Students will focus on world poverty and learn to distinguish between relative and absolute poverty.
Students are introduced to the possibility for cooperative, win-win solutions to water disputes through water markets.
This role play activity simulates a common environmental dilemma as community members trying to decide where to locate a new school are faced with the costs of “the alternative uses that must be given up at of any particular school location.
This lesson is a quick way to make students aware of the very real presence of international trade in their daily lives. They will find that most of their clothing is made overseas. As they map where their clothes were produced, students begin to see some of the patterns of specialization that exist in the global marketplace and to realize the extent to which we are tied to this interdependent network of production and trade. The group discussion questions help them to identify the costs and benefits of purchasing and wearing clothing produced in other countries – or of choosing not to purchase and wear clothing produced overseas.
Students will analyze descriptions from five different countries to determine which institutional components of capitalism are present and, if so, to what extent. Students place each on a continuum depending upon the number and strength of its capitalist institutions.