H2U Vol 6 Issue 5 Year 9 Special.pub - Highcliffe School

Geography and Social
Enterprise
Last term Year 9 Geography
students learned about
Development, covering the
differences between MED-
C’c and LEDC’s – or More
Economically Developed
Countries and Less Economically
Developed Countries.
We also looked at the difference
between relative
and absolute poverty, the
benefits of world trade and
problems of globalisation,
and the reasons behind the
trade gap between poor
and rich countries.
The unit also studied the
Millennium Development
Goals set in the year 2000
by nearly 200 countries
round the world in an effort
to make the world a
better place. Year 9s
looked at the progress and
limits being made regarding
issues such as infant
mortality, literacy rates,
maternal health and combating
serious diseases
such as HIV and malaria.
The Trading Game was a
way to reflect on the unit
as a whole and coincided
with Enterprise Week last
November – with a focus
on Social Enterprise. Mr
Newitt and Ms Kennedy
worked hard to set up the
exercise in the Performance
Hall.
The aim was to highlight
how some countries will
remain poor if the richer
countries do not take some
responsibility to make
changes for humanitarian
reasons rather than ones
based on profit. Please
read the report below to
find out what happened.
Trading Game
“The world economy, a
hugely complicated balancing
act, controlling more or
else everything in the world.
A system where making the
right decision means the difference
between financial
security or misery for millions;
a nation’s lasting success
or complete melt down!
So imagine my amazement
when I was asked to write a
report on it and told to go to
the Performance Hall. There,
members of the Humanities
department were unpacking
paper, scissors and protractors
from boxes labelled
with countries’ names. It
soon emerged that each box
represented a nation and
the items inside them that
nations resources. Year 9,
as part of Business and Enterprise
Week, were about
to experience ‘The Trading
Game’.
The aim of the game is to
make money by producing,
and selling different shaped
paper, the catch being different
shapes are worth different,
fluctuating amounts.
Things were made more realistic
with certain countries
having more paper (i.e. raw
materials) or scissors/
protractors (i.e. tools). So
with nations like the USA
and Britain trading their excess
tools with less industrialised
nations such as such
as Malaysia and Bolivia for
raw materials the game began.
Mr. Newitt was in
charge of the ‘business news
white board’ (a job presenting
CNBC must surely follow)
deciding the amount
paid for each shape on a
supply and demand basis.
Unfortunately the game was
realistic even to the lengths
countries would go to in
order to succeed. Not
naming names (China,
USA and Bolivia) but certain
groups either stole
from or deliberately polluted
the area surrounding
their neighbours. As industrial
pollution (paper
scraps on the floor) resulted
in a heavy fines on
the nearest country this
proved costly to many
countries. Interestingly,
whilst being successful legitimately,
Britain did
spend a lot of time stealing
from Bangladesh, India
and assorted African countries…
France and South Africa
ran out overall winners
with Tanzania making the
most of all the less economically
developed countries.
In the end Ms. Finch,
Ms. Kennedy and Mr.
Newitt should take the
credit for creating an interesting
(and fun) way of
showing the supply and
demand economy in action.”
Report by Mrs Finch
and Mark Lockett
A New Arrival
The Child Development
Class would like to announce
the arrival of a
bouncy baby girl. Yet to
be named, the RealCare
Baby II is a virtual baby,
weighing in at 6 ½ pounds.
She will cry, fuss and
make happy sounds depending
on her care. The
virtual baby will be used by
the students to gain an insight
into the demanding
role of caring for a newborn.
Each student will be caring
for the baby for 3 days
H2U, Vol 6 Issue 5 Year 9 Special - February 2007 Page 6