The Wide World of Trade

The Wide World of Trade is a set of eleven lessons that teach middle-school students about international trade and finance. The lessons are stand-alone, allowing teachers to select the lessons that best fit their students. Several lessons are based on the most popular lessons in the International News Journal, Inc. published in 1992 by the Joint Council on Economic Education, now known as the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE). Because global neighbors have become increasingly interdependent, it is commonplace to hear or read about international trade, trade restrictions, and how weak or strong the dollar is relative to other currencies. Unfortunately, most people know less about these international trade topics than they know about economics in general. The lessons in this publication are designed to teach students basic knowledge and principles about international trade and finance and to provide more insight into how the world of international trade works.

The Wide World Trade incorporates features that we think will make the lessons successful in middle-school classrooms. Some of those features are highlighted below.

• International trade and finance lessons - the lessons teach concepts such as scarcity, resources, opportunity cost, voluntary exchange, specialization and trade, comparative advantage, interdependence, gross domestic product, standard of living, exports, imports, trade barriers, foreign currency, and foreign currency markets
• Standards-based economics lessons - each lesson has been correlated to the national voluntary content standards in economics. See pages vii – ix for specific content standards and benchmarks for each lesson.
• Active learning approaches - each lesson includes hands-on activities. These active approaches were included because they are usually more effective in motivating students. These activities also provide a point of reference for teachers to use in later lessons and discussions. Many activities require students to get up and move in the classroom as they simulate some real-world process. There are many opportunities for discussion and group work. However, there is also opportunity for independent work. Every lesson includes visuals and/or graphic organizers.
• Integrated Curriculum - each lesson integrates language arts (reading, writing, oral communication). Several lessons integrate geography (maps, physical geography) and several integrate math (data analysis, computation, estimation, charts, tables).
• Assessment - all lessons include suggested assessments. Assessments include multiple choice questions, short response items, or extended response items. The short and extended response items require students to use the economic understanding to analyze, synthesize, or evaluate.

We hope that The Wide World of Trade will be used by middle-school teachers in the United States to enhance student understanding of important issues, such as the benefits of trade, the basis for trade, trade barriers, and foreign currency markets. We also hope that The Wide World of Trade will provide a common curriculum for partnership programs between U.S. and international classrooms at the middle-school level. As a result, students around the world can learn about their global neighbors while gaining important economic understanding.

Sarapage McCorkle, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Bonnie Meszaros, University of Delaware
Mary C. Suiter, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Michael Watts, Purdue University