H2U Vol 7 Issue 3 Jan 2008.pub - Highcliffe School

Enterprise Challenge cup.
You can read about their
experience at the Regional
finals in the box.
Year 9 Geography and
Social Enterprise
Last term Year 9 Geography
students learned about
Development. Covering
the differences between
MEDCs and LEDCs – 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 9’s looked at
the progress and limits being
made regarding issues
such as infant mortality, literacy
rates, maternal health
and
combatingseriousdiseases
such
as
HIV
and
malaria.
The Trading Game was a
way to reflect on the unit as
a whole and coincided with
Enterprise Week – with a focus
on Social Enterprise.
The world economy is 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. 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.
The Trading Game
The aim of the game is to
make money by producing,
Trading Game—Student Responses
‘By playing the Trading Game I learnt a lot about how countries have to
struggle on what the resources they have. I noticed that many of the
countries were deprived of the basic needs to make the shapes. The
Game was trying to show us how hard it was for some countries to get by
with what they had. The team I was with was Malaysia and all we had to
start off with was paper and £200. We traded our paper and money for
resources. The changes to the value of shapes was annoying at times and
we were not very successful, the highest amount of money we cashed in
was £300, but by the end we only had £100 due to being fined.‘
By Kathryn Marks
‘The Trading Game was a fun yet educational activity which taught us
about the world’s economic system but in an interesting way. I was in
the winning team of Tanzania. We were quite a poor country and we only
started with one pencil, one piece of paper and £200. We had to trade
what little we had to get the right equipment to make the various shapes
and then cash them in at the World Bank. We were good at trading with
other countries and we managed to get our country out of poverty and
further up the economic system.’
By Lewis Payne
Page 6 H2U, Vol 7 Issue 3 - January 2008