October 15th

The Chips of Trade Discussion Questions: 1. Have the students look around the room and take note of how many “countries” received three chips, two chips, one chip, and no chips respectively.     a. What would it be like to live in a country in each group? 2. Does each country have a large and well-balanced resource base (3 chips of 3 different colors)?     a. If you don’t have a well-balanced resource base, what could you do to improve your         situation?     b. How does Group 1’s ability to export resources affect their wealth and well-being?     c. How does Group 4’s dependence on the resources of other countries affect their wealth and         well-being? 3. Based on the resources you have, would you like to see your country’s population increase,     decrease, or stay the same? Why? 4. As a country’s leader, how does knowing the population of your country help you plan for the     future?         a. If you are a country in Group 1, consider what would happen if your population became             much bigger. Much smaller?         b. If you are a country in Group 4, consider what would happen if your population became             much bigger. Much smaller? 5. What are some possible advantages and disadvantages of having a stable population? See Chart 6. You’ll notice that Canada and Colombia export approximately the same amount as they import.     However, this isn’t the case with Nepal and Burundi.         -How can a country afford to import more than it exports? 7. There is a large difference between the amount that each country’s exports are worth.     -Calculate the amount of exports per capita, for each country. 8. How are a country's resources impacted by the size of their population? 9. How are a country’s resources impacted by population growth? As a country’s population increases, some impacts include:     -more resources need to be mined/produced/grown in order to provide for more people.     -the amount of non-renewable resources will decrease as more people are using them.     -some people may go hungry/thirsty/without shelter, etc. if there aren’t enough resources to      go around. 10. Compare the growth rates of each country with the population growth rate of the planet. 11. In question #3, if you answered that you would like to see your country’s population increase, how can you rationalize this when looking at the big picture of world population hitting seven billion? Turn in HERE