International Trade Webquest - Teacher Introduction

Teacher Introduction

This lesson was developed in the course Teaching with WebQuests, a course offered by the Teacher Education Institute.

Use this WebQuest to help grades 10 - 12 economics or business students learn about international trade. This WebQuest will introduce the students to current issues in international trade and will require them to access websites created by people with various viewpoints on the topics related to international trade.

Students will be divided into groups of 6 to complete the task. The goal is to have the students research various aspects of international trade and then work with a group of students to formulate a trade policy for a national political party. Each student in the group will assume one of the special interest roles and the group as a whole will carve out an international trade policy recommendation.

In addition to learning basic information about international trade the students will be asked to compromise and reach a consensus recommendation. International trade is a controversial topic and people disagree because of differences in their value systems, what they accept as factually correct, and what their ultimate goals are. In this imperfect world, it's useful to expose future adults to such differences and to give them practice in resolving them. The essence of a consensus building task is the requirement that differing viewpoints be articulated, considered, and accommodated where possible. This consensus building task attempts to do that.

The following are the national and Michigan curriculum standards that are attempted to be addressed by this web quest.

National Economics Standard 5: Gain from Trade
Voluntary exchange occurs only when all participating parties expect to gain. This is true for trade among individuals or organizations within a nation, and usually among individuals or organizations in different nations. When imports are restricted by public policies, consumers pay higher prices and job opportunities and profits in exporting firms decrease.

National Economics Standard 6: Specialization and Trade
When individuals, regions, and nations specialize in what they can produce at the lowest cost and then trade with others, both production and consumption increase. Two factors that prompt international trade are international differences in the availability of productive resources and differences in relative prices. Transaction costs are costs (other than price) that are associated with the purchase of a good or service. When transaction costs decrease, trade increases.

Michigan Economics Standard IV.5 Trade
All students will describe how trade generates economic development and interdependence and analyze the resulting challenges and benefits for individuals, producers, and government. Explain how specialization, interdependence and economic development are related. Describe the effect of currency exchange, tariffs, quotas, and product standards on world trade and domestic economic activity.