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Starter Activities
The following adaptable classroom activities suggest various approaches for introducing and/or extending learning on international poverty issues.
1. Balancing Business v. Community Needs
Present a scenario to the class of a business that has bought land in a developing country with the intent of building a factory. Assign students one of four perspectives:
- company official
- international investor
- local worker
- local government official
As a class, watch the approximately 17-minute report from NOW with BILL MOYERS on factory workers in Thailand. [This report is from the 9/5/03 broadcast. A free transcript of this program is available on the NOW Web site. Teachers may also tape the broadcast off-air and use it in the classroom for one year. Alternatively, programs are available for purchase from ShopPBS.] Focus student viewing by having them note key priorities from the viewpoint of the role they've each been assigned. Next, hold a town meeting where members from each perspective present their priorities and discuss how everyone's interests can be served. Guiding questions:
- Can and should the company accommodate all interests?
- Do workers' rights, governmental policies and the company's actions agree?
- Where does it make the most sense for compromises to be made for each party?
- Among these parties, who carries the largest burden of responsibility for making it happen?
Debrief with the students about the town meeting. Have students research situations in which American companies (e.g. Nike, Ford, etc.) have built plants in developing nations. How did these companies integrate into the local community? How did the students' town meeting responses compare with reality?
2. Analyze Per Student Spending Around the World
Statistics show that education is essential to the success of a developing nation. Use the following Web sites to compare the per student spending among developed and developing nations:
The World Bank: EDSTATS
http://devdata.worldbank.org/edstats/cd.asp
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
http://www.unesco.org/
Have students create graphic representations of the data they collect. Do countries that pay a higher percentage of per capita income per student get better results? Hypothesize as to why or why not.
About the Author
Kristy Brugar teaches at Cranbrook Kingswood Boys Middle School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In 2001, she received the Christa McAuliff "Reach for the Stars" Award from the National Council of Social Studies (NCSS) and the Fund for the Advancement of Social Studies Education (FASSE), which supports teachers developing innovative social studies teaching strategies. She received an Earthwatch Education Grant (2001) and traveled to Japan, South Africa and Zimbabwe with Fulbright awards to enhance her teaching.
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