Teacher's Guide - The Curriculum Project

5. Money & BarterDiscussionDiscussion1. Put students into groups. Ask them to think of a way to define the word‘money’. Give them about five minutes to think and write down their ideas.Then ask them to give you their answer written on a piece of paper. Readout each answer, write it on the board, and discuss briefly.2. Ask them why a US$50 is more valuable than a notebook. If students getstuck ask them what can you do with a $50 dollar note that you can’t dowith a notebook.The reason why a US$50 note is more valuable than the notebook is because of its exchangevalue.You can exchange a US$50 note for a lot more things than a notebook.Brainstorm3. Ask students to give you names of world currencies. (There are 178 differentcurrencies in the world.)Exchange RatesAsk one student to read aloud the paragraph on ‘Exchange Rates’. Askthe students:If I exchanged US$100 for Burmese kyats, how many kyats would I receive?Answer: 125,000 kyats.Different things used as moneyAsk one student to read the paragraph aloud.Yap Stone MoneyAsk one student to read aloud the paragraph about Yap stone money. Thenask the students to read the paragraphs to themselves for a few minutes.Ask questions to check understanding:How big are the largest Yap stones?Answer: About four meters in diameter.How do Yap people calculate the value of their stone money?Answer: It depends on the size and history of the stone.Do they usually use the stones as money?Answer: No, they usually use US dollars.What do wealthy people do with the stones?Answer: They put them outside their houses.Discussion4. Put students into groups of 3-5. Ask them to discuss these questions andwrite down their ideas for 5-10 minutes. Then elicit ideas from different groupsand check agreement with the rest of the class.For the different kinds of money used in Burma, you might mention: gold and silver, precious amdsemi-precious stones, animals (cows, goats, chickens), etc.The Curriculum Project ECONOMICS: an introduction - Teacher’s Guide7