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Subtask 3 - Trade: Where Do Our Goods Come From?
(PDF File)
Description | CGEs | Expectations | Teaching/Learning | Resources
Teacher Background Notes | Relevant Excerpts from Church Documents
Summary Box
Description
In this subtask, students will explore where products they use each and every day are produced. Through the use of guided imagery students will examine their use of imported goods in the context of an ordinary day. They will then identify and record these imported consumer products, and the country of their origin, on a Consumer Product Inventory Chart. Students will share information from their Product Inventory Chart as part of a whole class discussion on the topic of imports and Canada’s dependence on international trade. Students will also explore the most up to date statistics and data on Canada’s imports and exports using the Statistics Canada website. Through the use of the Product Inventory Chart, the Statistics Canada website, and the related class discussion, some of Canada’s trading partners will be identified and placed on a map of the world. Students will complete this subtask by writing a personal reflection on Canada’s reliance on international trade for economic prosperity.
| Catholic School Graduate Expectations |
| CGE 3f |
Examines, evaluates and applies knowledge of interdependent systems (physical, political, ethical, socio-economic and ecological) for the development of a just and compassionate society. |
| CGE 7g |
Respects and understands the history, cultural heritage and pluralism of today’s contemporary society. |
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| Expectations |
| 6z29 |
identify products that Canada imports and exports
(e.g., imports: fruit, vegetables, chemicals, motor vehicles; exports: newsprint, grain, machinery, timber,
telecommunications, and natural gas) |
| 6z30 |
identify the countries to which Canada exports goods
(e.g., the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, China, Germany) |
| 6z31 |
identify the countries from which Canada imports goods
(e.g., the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom,
Germany, other European countries, Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico) |
| 6z37 |
use a variety of primary and secondary sources to locate and process relevant information about Canada’s links with the world (e.g., primary sources: statistics, field trips, interviews, original documents; secondary sources: maps, illustrations, print materials, videos, CD-ROMs, Internet sites) |
| 6z38 |
analyze, classify, and interpret information about the United States and at least one other country from another region of the world |
| 6z41 |
use appropriate vocabulary (e.g., technology, culture,
immigration, tourism, physical features, indigenous peoples, export, import, parallels, meridians, Pacific Rim, economics, media) to describe their inquiries and observations |
| 6z42 |
use base maps and a variety of information sources to sketch the relative position of places (e.g., location of trading partners, popular tourist areas of the United States and Canada) |
| 6e1 |
communicate ideas and information for a variety of purposes (to inform, to persuade, to explain) and to specific audiences e.g., write the instructions for building an electrical circuit for an audience unfamiliar with the technical terminology) |
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Summary Box
Groupings
Students work in a whole group
Students work individually
Teaching/ Learning Strategies
Guided Imagery
Graphic Organizer
Map Making
Discussion
Reflection
Assessment
Use BLM 3.5 Personal Reflection Sheet to evaluate students’ understanding of Canada’s dependence on imports.
Assessment Strategies
Personal Reflection
Assessment Recording Devices
Rating Scale |
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| Teaching/Learning |
- Students will be introduced to the concept of trade and imports through a teacher reading of BLM 3.1 Guided Imagery: Life Without Imports. Students are asked to close their eyes and imagine what life would be like if we didn’t have imported goods. They will need to focus their powers of concentration and stretch their imaginations. The guided imagery reading needs to be read slowly to allow students some time to create the image in their mind and silently reflect. A whole class discussion would naturally occur after the reading, about a lifestyle such as the one presented and the fact that Canada imports so many products.
- Students will next be assigned BLM 3.2 the Consumer Product Inventory Chart, an out-of-class activity, on which they will gather information by listing various consumer products that they have utilized in a day (i.e. food, clothing, games/electronics, household items and transportation). A whole class sharing of these lists will lead into a discussion of Canada’s extensive international trading relationships. Particular emphasis should be placed on the wide range of countries with which Canada trades, the large variety of consumer products that come from other countries, and the large amount of goods that Canada also exports to other countries.
- The whole class discussion that arises from the Consumer Product Inventory Chart will act as a lead in activity to a deeper and more detailed investigation of Canada’s international trading relationships. Students will now be asked to explore the most up to date statistics and data on Canada’s imports and exports using the Statistics Canada website. Students first need to be introduced to the Canadian Statistics main page of the Statistics Canada website at www40.statcan.ca. From this page students can select the ‘subject’ tab from the menu on the left hand side of the page and then select ‘Trade’ from the list of topics given. Once in the Trade section students can access statistical tables on both imports and exports. Students will need to use these tables to complete the related worksheets BLM 3.3a, 3.3b, 3.3c. If a computer lab is unavailable for this activity the teacher can easily print these tables from the website and photocopy them for students to use. All worksheets and activities on this website are free to make use of and adapt/modify as the teacher sees fit. Students will most likely need to be supported throughout this activity and with the use/interpretation of these tables. This activity and the completion of the worksheets would probably work best as a teacher directed lesson or group activity with the teacher facilitating and supporting students within their groups.
- Following the completion of the Statistics Canada worksheets, students will work together, in a whole class activity, to create a list of Canada’s trading partners. Through teacher led discussion, a class list or chart of source countries (‘Canada’s Trading Partners’) will be created. From the class-generated list, students will explore possible geographic import patterns. They will then locate and label these countries on a world map (BLM 3.4).
- Students will be assigned BLM 3.5 Personal Reflection Sheet to demonstrate their understanding of Canada’s reliance on other countries for goods and the importance of this trade to their quality of life.
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Resources
BLM 3.1 - Guided Imagery: Life Without Imports
BLM 3.2 - Consumer Product Inventory Chart
BLM 3.3a - Statistics Canada: ‘Student Worksheet 1’
BLM 3.3b - Statistics Canada: ‘Student Worksheet: International Trade, Exports and Imports’
BLM 3.3c - Statistics Canada: ‘Student Worksheet: International Trade, Trade Balance’
BLM 3.4 - World Map
BLM 3.5 - Personal Reflection Sheet
BLM 3.6 - Personal Reflection Sheet – Rating Scale
Statistics Canada Website (www.statcan.ca)
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Teacher Background Notes
Everything you will ever need to know about Canada and Its Trading Partners may be found at http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/ind01/l2_1130.htm. This link includes data and statistics on Canada’s imports, exports, trading partners and relationships.
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Relevant Excerpts from Church Documents
Ecclesia in America
20 A feature of the contemporary world is the tendency towards globalization, a phenomenon which, although not exclusively American, is more obvious and has greater repercussions in America. It is a process made inevitable by increasing communication between the different parts of the world, leading in practice to overcoming distances, with evident effects in widely different fields. The ethical implications can be positive or negative. There is an economic globalization which brings some positive consequences, such as efficiency and increased production and which, with the development of economic links between the different countries, can help to bring greater unity among peoples and make possible a better service to the human family. ….If globalization is ruled merely by the laws of the market applied to suit the powerful; the consequences cannot but be negative. These are, for example, the absolutizing of the economy, unemployment, the reduction and deterioration of public services, the destruction of the environment and natural resources, the growing distance between rich and poor, unfair competition which puts the poor nations in a situation of ever increasing inferiority. While acknowledging the positive values which come with globalization, the Church considers with concern the negative aspects which follow in its wake.
55 By her social doctrine the Church makes an effective contribution to the issues presented by the current globalized economy. Her moral vision in this area “rests on the threefold cornerstone of human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity”. The globalized economy must be analyzed in the light of the principles of social justice, respecting the preferential option for the poor who must be allowed to take their place in such an economy, and the requirements of the international common good. For “the Church's social doctrine is a moral vision which aims to encourage governments, institutions and private organizations to shape a future consonant with the dignity of every person.”
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
172“God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and all peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity.” (Universal Destination of Goods).....The universal right to use the goods of the earth is based on a principle of the universal destination of goods. Each person must have access to the level of well-being, necessary for his full development. The right to the common use of goods is the “first principle of all ethical social order” and “the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine.”…It is an “inherent right”. It is innate in individual persons, and every person, and has priority with regard to any human intervention concerning goods, to any legal system concerning the same, to any economic or social system or method: “All other rights, wherever they are, including property rights and the right of free trade must be subordinated to this norm (the universal destination of goods); they must not hinder it, but rather expedite its application. It must be considered as serious and urgent obligation to refer these rights to the original purpose.”
Vatican II Documents
26 Every day human interdependence grows more tightly drawn and spreads by degrees over the whole world. As a result the common good, that is, the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment, today takes on an increasingly universal complexion and consequently involves rights and duties with respect to the whole human race. Every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate aspiration of other groups, and even of the general welfare of the entire human family.
Gaudium et Spes, (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World)
OCCB Documents
It is precisely this solidarity and interdependence that are at the core of Catholic social teaching and that are so necessary if we are to begin to change those unjust global attitudes and structures that keep the South poor and the North rich.
Celebrating An Education for Justice and Peace, Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1996
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