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Add your name and information to the list.

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Integrating Geography & Technology Workshop 2018

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How do you view your country relative to others? Chances are if it's based on most world maps, your view is distorted.

Trying to represent a sphere on a flat surface is inherently problematic. Those countries along the equator seem smaller, while nations such as Canada and Russia are commonly stretched and appear larger than reality.

But what if countries were scaled based on their population?

The following cartogram, created by Reddit user TeaDranks, has done just that, and it could change your entire perception of the world. Cartograms scale a region's geographic space according to a particular attribute and in this case each square now represents 500,000 people.

We all know that India and China have large populations, but this map emphasises their size on a global scale. Compared to conventional world maps, the two Asian powerhouses dominate. Along with several East Asian neighbours - Bangladesh, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia - their contribution to the global population is clear.

The size of Nigeria and Brazil compared to the rest of Africa and Latin America is equally apparent.

The map also effectively highlights the contribution of cities and regions to total populations. For example, the greater Tokyo region accounts for a significant proportion of Japan's overall population. Equally, Delhi, Shanghai and Mumbai all occupy areas larger than many European nations.

At the other end of the scale, some economies which are barely visible on traditional world maps appear much larger on the cartogram. Consider the cases of Hong Kong and Taiwan, whose relatively large populations compared to their geographical sizes see them feature much more prominently.

Conversely, some countries which are very large on conventional maps can barely be seen. Canada, Russia and Australia are much smaller in TeaDranks' representation, which was inspired by Paul Breding's 2005 work. Canada in particular disappears almost entirely.

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Here's what the world would look like if countries were scaled based on their population

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How do you view your country relative to others? Chances are if it's based on most world maps, your view is distorted. Trying to represent a sphere on a flat surface is inherently problematic. Those countries along the equator seem smaller, while nations such as Canada and Russia are commonly stretched and appear larger than reality.

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View of the Himalayas, looking south from the Tibetan Plateau in the foreground into the Ganges Basin of India in the background. In this view, we've draped imagery from the vertical camera over the surface topography (NASA).

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Iowa Ecological Culture and the Katoski Greenbelt 

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Iowa Ecological Culture and the Katoski Greenbelt 

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Worksheet

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Pentagon document lays out battle plan against zombies

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American Presidents Lesson with resources

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Stories and lessons for growing minds

We are a free multimedia platform for educators and students. Through our immersive storytelling and curricula, we aim to plant seeds of empathy, interconnectedness, and a sacred relationship with our planet. Use our award-winning films, photo essays, and essays to learn about social, cultural, and environmental issues from individuals and communities worldwide. For grades 3-12, our stories and lessons encourage students to broaden their perspectives and worldviews while fostering universal human values and respect for the living world. We aim to bring universal values into the lives of educators and students.

Experience Our Storytelling

Watch this short video to learn more about the stories we tell.

Student Winners and Finalists: The Environment Is in You

In what ways is climate change impacting the place where you live?

In this contest, students documented the fragility, hope, and future of our planet's ecosystem due to climate change. Inspired by four environmental writers-Linda Hogan, Robert Hass, Wendell Berry, and Dara McAnulty-students explored changes to local systems, how the environment shapes our identity, and how our actions and awareness today can impact the future.

View Winners and Finalists

Feature

These five shorts films follows five Native American communities who are restoring their traditional land management practices.

Learn More

Essay

How might stories act as keys allowing us access to challenge, examine, uproot, and illumine our habits and fears?

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Feature

This feature shares the stories of four Indigenous communities in California who are working to revitalize their languages and cultures in order to pass them on to the next generation.

Learn More

"This film has historic relevancy. I can see myself using it to encourage students to think about the value of the space program and how it speaks to the American Spirit and how we are often looking forward in our progress. This film begs to be used as an exploration of what it means to be a global citizen, how students can learn from people not like themselves, and what actions students can take in their everyday lives to make the world a better place."

Michael Dunn, Director of College Counseling at Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center

Stories Exploring Climate Change

Celebrating Student Artwork: New Student Gallery

Encourage thoughtful and meaningful conversations in the classroom with our student gallery. Use the gallery as a tool to foster curiosity, observation skills, and perspective-taking.

The gallery encourages students to learn from each other's perspectives. How are students witnessing and engaging with the world in new ways since the start of Covid-19? Search by theme, previous Global Oneness Project contests, or from locations around the world. The gallery is accompanied by an image analysis activity, including a Visible Thinking Routine from Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

View Student Gallery

Receive our newsletter to learn about new stories and companion lesson plans.

Who Is Using Our Materials

Our materials provide opportunities for an interdisciplinary approach to learning across disciplines from social sciences and humanities to environmental sciences. Education stakeholders, including K-12 educators, university professors, librarians, tech/media specialists, parents, and students are using our materials in multiple learning environments.

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In January 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek set off from Ethiopia on a seven-year walk around the world.

His route retraces the migratory pathways of our ancient human ancestors.

As he walks, Paul writes about what he observes and reflects on where we have come in our unfolding human story.

Read More Listen to Paul's Message of Introduction

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In January 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek set off from Ethiopia on a seven-year walk around the world. His route retraces the migratory pathways of our ancient human ancestors. As he walks, Paul writes about what he observes and reflects on where we have come in our unfolding human story.

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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek is retracing on foot the global migration of our ancestors in a 21,000-mile, seven-year odyssey that begins in Ethiopia and ends in Tierra del Fuego.

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This story map was created with the Story Map Series application in ArcGIS Online.

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Animated map shows how religion spread around the world

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The Refugee Project by Hyperakt and Ekene Ijeoma, visualizes UNHCR refugee data and UN population data to tell the stories of refugee movements from 1975 to 2015.

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All the World's Immigration Visualized on 1 Map

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All the World's Immigration Visualized on 1 Map

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This map shows the estimated net immigration (inflows minus outflows) by origin and destination country between 2010 and 2015.

Blue circles = positive net migration (more inflows). Red circles = negative net migration (more outflows). Each yellow dot represents 1,000 people.

Hover over a circle to see that country's total net migration between 2010 and 2015. Click a circle (or tap the circle twice on mobile) to view only the migration flows in and out of that country.

Country-to-country net migration (2010-2015)
The data for this map comes from the U.N. Population Division, more information on how it was calculated at the bottom of the post.
Immigration: the new Godwin's Law

If you're not familiar with Godwin's law, it is an old internet adage that states, " As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazism or Hitler approaches 1. "

Lately, I've found a similar principle applies to immigration. No matter what topic is being discussed online, if the conversation goes on for long enough, someone will inevitably tie it back to immigration.

Immigration has always been an important and frequently debated issue. And for many current events, the connection with immigration is clear, for example: terrorism / ISIS, the Brexit, Donald Trump and this year's presidential race, the refugee crisis. But at some point in the last year or two, I started noticing immigration being mentioned in connection with all sorts of topics I never would have expected.

To see what I mean, here are some of the topics I've posted about where immigration came up in discussion, either in the comment section of the post or on social media:

Why is immigration suddenly the cause / result / solution of everything? (Not meant rhetorically. If you have a good answer, I'd love to know.)

Who is migrating from where to where?

For a topic that comes up as often as immigration, I've found the debate to be really lacking in factual information. Hopefully this map is helpful is clearing up at least the simple, basic statistics: how many migrants are there? Where are they coming from? And where are they going?

Please keep in mind, these numbers are only estimates. You can find the full details of how they were calculated at the bottom of the post.

That said, here are a few of the pieces I found interesting.

Syria

Between 2010 and 2015, the net migration from Syria to Sweden was more than Syria's net migration to the rest of Europe and the Americas combined.

Many Middle Eastern countries have been criticized for allegedly accepting few Syrian refugees. In Qatar and the UAE, the net migration appears to actually be negative. Though of the Middle Eastern countries that are accepting Syrian refugees, the numbers they are dealing with are orders of magnitude higher than in the West.

The United Kingdom / Brexit

In the Brexit debate, the loudest arguments in favor of leaving the EU have been about immigration. What strikes me as interesting is how small a portion of the UK's net immigration is actually coming from Europe.

Australia

Australia, another country where immigration has become a highly charged political issue, jumps out as an interesting case.

By these estimates, Australia's net immigration is negative with every country in the world, except for a small positive immigration balance with Sudan. Australia is the only country in the world to have significant positive net immigration with the US.

United States

Last month, I posted a map visualizing 200 years of US immigration (inflows only). I would have liked to do the same with US emigration, which may be the more interesting direction since it is not nearly as well known. Unfortunately the US does not keep good emigration records and the best data I've managed to find goes back only a few decades. So, I don't foresee being able to make a historical US emigration map.

Still, I think it's pretty interesting to see what US net immigration flows look like in the present.

As mentioned above, according to these estimates, the US has significant positive net immigration with only one other country, Australia. The country with which the US has the largest negative net immigration is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Mexico. Though the amount by which Mexico leads is down substantially compared to a decade ago. Illegal immigration in particular has fallen off sharply, as demonstrated by this time series of border apprehensions from Pew Research.

When US immigration is viewed by region, the area that really stands out is Asia, which now accounts for just as much US immigration as North + South America (Mexico included).

Immigration between the US and Mexico is particularly complex, since it involves both legal and illegal immigration as well as temporary laborers, deportations, and a large number of people living in immigration detention facilities. For that reason, America's true net migration with Mexico is uncertain, and may actually be much lower than what's shown here. If you believe Pew's estimates, net migration with Mexico is now actually negative: more people are migrating from the US to Mexico than vice versa.

Immigration perceptions

Wherever you stand politically on immigration, you have to admit, it's pretty strange how rarely basic stats like these enter the debate. For all the discussion in the US about border fences and immigration limits, the simple question of "how many immigrants are there?" hardly ever even comes up.

Public opinion about immigration was likely a deciding factor in Britain's decision to exit the EU. And it may very well determine who becomes the next US president. Yet the majority of Brits and the majority of Americans misestimate the size of their country's immigrant population by a multiple.

The data for this map comes from the UN Population Division's estimates for Total Migrant Stock - the number of global migrants, broken down by country of residence and country of origin. The numbers are not fully consistent. In some cases, they represent foreign citizens and in others they represent foreign born. See the dataset itself for the full set of footnotes.

To convert those figures into immigration estimates, I took the difference between the migrant stock in 2015 and that in 2010. Since some of that difference is due to mortality, not immigration, I adjusted the 2010 numbers down assuming an annual mortality rate of 0.8%, the global average.

The map was made in Javascript using D3, three.js, and MapboxGL.

View the map as a Youtube video or embed the interactive version using the HTML below.
My latest project, Elementus, aims to bring transparency to the cryptocurrency market. Check out our blog for some crypto-related data visualizations.

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All the World's Immigration Visualized in 1 Map

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Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn63.9KsharesThis map shows the estimated net immigration (inflows minus outflows) by origin and destination country between 2010 and 2015. Blue circles = positive net migration (more inflows). Red circles = negative net migration (more outflows). Each yellow dot represents 1,000 people.

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Cartogram Maps

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Worldmapper | rediscover the world as you’ve never seen it before

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Mapping our place in the world: The atlas for the 21st century. Worldmapper is a collection of world maps where countries are resized according to a broad range of global issues. Our cartograms are unique visualisations that show the world as you’ve never seen it before. Explore them all!

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As budding teenagers, our students have a pretty small worldview. Big History challenges them to expand that tiny bubble. Lesson 8.3's Personal Supply Chain activity especially shatters a lot of preconceived notions students have about the way the world works. As they trace the supply chain of a product they've chosen, they find that the process is much more complex than they ever imagined-and sometimes not as transparent as they'd like it to be. Even products manufactured in the USA use raw materials and energy sources from all over the world. Or as one student put it, "Nothing is as local as it seems."

I absolutely love watching their worldview explode. Here is our approach.

Step One: Made in (Insert Country Here)
To kick off the activity, we start by mapping where our shirts, shoes, electronics, backpacks, and notebooks are made. Then, we analyze the patterns and trends of the distribution of our stuff. We finish up by discussing the implications. Where in the world are our products NOT made? Why does it matter?

Step Two: What's a Supply Chain?
If you have the luxury of time (like few of us), I highly recommend watching The Story of Stuff. It's a great breakdown of four key components in the supply chain: supply, manufacturing, distribution, and consumption. If you're squeezed for time (like most of us), check out NPR's Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt.

This year, we only had the luxury of 10 minutes to try and get students to grasp the whole supply chain concept, so we handed out fun-sized candy bars and asked students to do some quick research on raw materials, factories, transportation, and forms of energy used in the process. ( Side note: The following day, I scolded a student for taking a phone call during class...only to find out he was on the phone with a representative from the Mars company, still unsatisfied with the answers he was getting about their palm oil suppliers. Worldview exploded.)

Step Three: Cut Them Loose!
Once they've explored the big picture, students are eager to get started on their own research. They choose an item and trace out its supply chain. Mapping their work is especially enlightening. As an extension, we also challenged students to map electronically using ArcGIS (check out this one of a surfboard). Here are some of the takeaways from our students:

"I realize now that certain companies can own companies I never knew of. It surprised me when I found out that SoBe is owned by PepsiCo."

"I learned that there is a lot of money involved. It takes a lot of time and energy to make and ship these products."

"It has opened my eyes to how big my carbon footprint is. I chose a product that I knew was made in America, and it makes me feel better about my use. I want to start using less and reduce my footprint. Because of this project, I know how to help the Earth."

About the author: Rachel Hansen is a high school history and geography teacher in Muscatine, IA. Rachel teaches the BHP world history course over two 180-day semesters to about 50 ninth- through twelfth-grade students each school year.

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NOTHING IS AS LOCAL AS IT SEEMS: ADVENTURES IN MAPPING A PERSONAL SUPPLY CHAIN

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Rachel Hansen, BHP Teacher Iowa, USA As budding teenagers, our students have a pretty small worldview. Big History challenges them to expand that tiny bubble. Lesson 8.3's Personal Supply Chain activity especially shatters a lot of preconceived notions students have about the way the world works.

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OEC: The Observatory of Economic Complexity

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An online resource for international trade data and economic complexity indicators available through interactive visualizations of countries and products.

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How We Did This

Why A T-Shirt?

We wanted to see the hidden world behind clothes sold in this country, so we decided to make a T-shirt. We wanted to make an ordinary shirt like the vast majority of the shirts sold in this country - not organic cotton, not hand-sewn in the United States.

To figure out how many shirts to make, and to raise money to pay for them, we turned to Kickstarter. Our goal was to sell 2,000 shirts. In the end, we sold 25,000.

(Thanks again to everyone who ordered a shirt. Really. Amazing. We couldn't have done it without you!)

Why A Squirrel?

The design on the shirt, a squirrel hoisting a martini glass, is a visual pun: a reference to the phrase "animal spirits" made famous by the economist John Maynard Keynes.

As Planet Money's David Kestenbaum put it recently: "Keynes' idea was that there's more to the markets than just numbers; there are people and emotions making decisions. And to the extent that we are finding the human element in the very dry subject of economics, it's actually perfect for us."

10 Reporters, 3 Continents, 1 Archipelago

We flew drones over Mississippi. We got mugged in Chittagong, Bangladesh. We met people whom we'll never forget - the actual people who make our clothing. At every location we had radio reporters and videographers.

More T-Shirt Stories!

Good news: We have more T-shirt stories than we could fit on this site.

For more, subscribe to the Planet Money podcast.

A Little Help From Our Friends

Adam Davidson, Planet Money co-founder, came up with the idea of doing this project in the first place more than three years ago.

We were inspired a lot by a book: The Travels Of A T-shirt In The Global Economy. In fact, we hired the author, Pietra Rivoli, to be an adviser on the project. She's a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Bawen, Indonesia: Jess Jiang faces the classic producer's dilemma: One machine tells a story. A thousand create a racket.

After several years of trying and failing to make a T-shirt from scratch, we finally found some help from Jockey Corp. Marion Smith, the director of global sourcing for Jockey, was patient with us on the phone. (T-shirts are knitted, not woven. They're made from something that looks like thread but is called yarn.) Eventually, Jockey agreed to sell us T-shirts - and, more important, to let us follow the creation of those shirts.

The Planet Money T-shirts are made of fabric that Jockey's textile experts developed. They're based on a design pattern Jockey uses for its own T-shirt line. Jockey introduced us to its suppliers in Bangladesh and Colombia, and those suppliers agreed to assemble our shirts. And Jockey designers helped us pick out the colors for our shirts.

Credits

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Alex Blumberg

PROJECT ADVISER: Pietra Rivoli/McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

MANAGING PRODUCERS: Kainaz Amaria, Brian Boyer and Joshua Davis

PLANET MONEY: Quoctrung Bui, Zoe Chace, Jacob Goldstein, Jess Jiang, Caitlin Kenney, David Kestenbaum, Marianne McCune and Robert Smith

VIDEO DIRECTOR: Joshua Davis

MULTIMEDIA PRODUCERS: Kainaz Amaria, Joshua Davis, and Claire O'Neill

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO: Kainaz Amaria, Nacho Corbella, Joshua Davis, David Gilkey, Eric Helton, James Jensen, Soren Jensen, Katie Hayes Luke and David Nevala

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT: Jeremy Bowers, Danny DeBelius, Alyson Hurt and Wes Lindamood ( Source code on GitHub)

WRITER: Jacob Goldstein

COPY EDITING: Janey Adams, Stephanie Federico, Avie Schneider and Susan Vavrick

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION: Phia Bennin, Anirvan Ghosh, Frank Hernandez, Seth Maxon, Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez, Molly Messick, Eileen Mignoni, Urmila Ramakrishnan, Tiffany Salone and Alejandra Vengoechea

MOTION GRAPHICS: Suzanne Batmanghelichi and Adam Cole

SOUND EDITING: Drew Kennedy

LEGAL: Ashley Messenger and Brian Rideout

T-SHIRT ILLUSTRATOR: Bob Bianchini

ARCHIVAL VIDEO: AP Archive, U.S. Department of Agriculture ( via archive.org)

MUSIC:
"The Journey," "Goldengrove v2," "Wallflower" (Keith Kenniff/Unseen Music)
"Fire Ignorance," "Anthem" (Tyler Strickland)
"Club Coolada" (Cream Dream/Crash Symbols)
"Shade of Music" (Elias Music Library/Getty Music Library)
"B&G's" (Bela R. Balogh and Gabe Leavitt/3 Leg Torso)
"Stay Golden" (Au Revoir Simone/Moshi Moshi Records)
"Mirrors" (Crocodiles/Fat Possum Records)

SPECIAL THANKS: Coburn Dukehart; Jeffrey Silberman/Fashion Institute of Technology
Published December 2, 2013
This site is a product/service of NPR. Use is governed by NPR's terms of use and privacy policy.

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We wanted to see the hidden world behind clothes sold in this country, so we decided to make a T-shirt. We wanted to make an ordinary shirt like the vast majority of the shirts sold in this country - not organic cotton, not hand-sewn in the United States.

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Explore this story map to discover what a pencil is made of and where its materials are made. This story map is based on the National Geographic Education activity "Geography of a Pencil".
Grade Level: Elementary

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August 8th - Iowa City

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Grab your calendar! Big History Project teachers are meeting in select locations across the United States, and we hope you can join! (You can RSVP here.)

This summer, convenings will be split into two parts: information sessions and Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings. You're welcome to attend one or both parts! Here's what you can expect at each:

Part 1: Info Sessions-Just getting your feet wet? Let's chat about course content and instructional approach. We'll get hands-on with core activities and help you decide whether the course is a good fit for your school. Appropriate for teachers and administrators alike!

Part 2: PLC Meetings-Teaching BHP next year? Let's get planning! This part is more appropriate for folks who will be teaching the full course in 2018/19. It'll be highly collaborative and focused on sharing instructional best practices. Appropriate for first-year and veteran year BHP-ers alike!

There's limited capacity at each session- please RSVP as soon as you can, and a BHP team member will reach out with more information. (PS - we're including the full list of where we'll be, as we know folks often travel during summer months!)
PLEASE RVSP HERE
Locations and dates:
Los Angeles, CA: July 16
SATO Academy of Math and Science // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Milwaukee, WI: July 17
North Division High School // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Mesa, AZ: July 24
Dobson High School // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Phoenix, AZ: July 25
Deer Valley District Office // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm
Yes, we're offering TWO sessions in Arizona!
Stockton, CA: July 31
Aspire Langston Hughes Academy // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Indianapolis, IN: July 31
Innovation Center // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Denver, CO: July 31
Denver North High School // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Chicago, IL: August 1
Wildwood Magnet IB School // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Miami, FL: August 2
Miami Dade College North Campus // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Charlotte, NC: August 8
West Mecklenburg High School // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Iowa City, IA: August 8
Iowa City Public Library // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Washington, DC: August 9
DCPS Central Office // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Seattle, WA: August 14
Lincoln High School, Tacoma // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Lenoir, NC: August 14
Lenoir Professional Development Center // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Hartford, CT: August 14
CTHSS Central Office // PLC: 9:00am-12:00pm // Info: 1:00-2:30pm

San Diego, CA: August 15
Liberty Station // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

New York, NY: August 20
Dwight School // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Novi, MI: August 21
Novi Middle School Library // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm

Trenton, NJ: August 23
Trenton Free Public Library // Info: 1-2:00pm // PLC: 2:30-5:00pm
*Note: A member of our team will reach out with details related to the location you choose!

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BHP Team Grab your calendar! Big History Project teachers are meeting in select locations across the United States, and we hope you can join! (You can RSVP here.) This summer, convenings will be split into two parts: information sessions and Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings. You're welcome to attend one or both parts!

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How many planets does it take to sustain your lifestyle?

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What is your Ecological Footprint? How many planets does it take to support your lifestyle? Take this free quiz to find out!

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How does the production of a pencil illustrate global interconnections?

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Distribute pencils to students. Ask: What materials or natural resources do you think make up a pencil? Organize student ideas on the board. Then project the Geography of a Pencil handout. Discuss students' ideas while comparing them to the information in Table 1 on the handout. Describe each of the component parts of a pencil while pointing to each of the materials.
2. Discuss the geographic origins of the materials used to make a pencil.
Ask: Now that you know the different materials in a pencil, where do you think all of these materials originate? Have students point on the World Political MapMaker Kit to countries they think might produce parts of a pencil. Explain to students that these materials come from all around the world, and that many countries contribute different materials used to make a pencil. Show students Table 2 on the handout Geography of a Pencil and explain that the countries included are the top producer s of these materials. Tell students that these five materials come from many different areas, but that the countries listed on the handout are some of the top producers of the materials. Using a world atlas for reference, have students identify these countries on the World Political MapMaker Kit, and have a volunteer label the countries with the product name. You can either do this as a whole class with the World Political Mega Map or in groups with the smaller tabletop version.
3. Divide students into country groupings.
Divide students into six groups, with each of five groups representing one of the countries where each of the materials is made. Assign the sixth group to represent the United States, or the country in which you live. Have each group make a sign with its country name. Have students also include the country flag, if time permits. Tell groups of students (except the United States group) that they represent a company in that country that wants to build a factory to produce pencils, but they need to figure out how to get the other materials to make a pencil. Tell the United States group that they are the consumer and need to purchase finished pencils for their company to distribute to schools in the United States.
4. Brainstorm methods of moving goods around the globe.
Ask groups to brainstorm and write a list of the different methods of transportation that are used in trade to move goods around the world. Invite each group to write on the board one of the methods they have listed. As a whole class, discuss some of the benefits and challenges of the different methods of transportation. Organize this list in a chart that everyone can share or see. As part of this exercise, ask: How fast are the different methods? How much of a good can be transported at one time? What other factors might affect the use of a method? Encourage students to think about the costs of fuel to power the ship, plane, train, truck or other vehicle. Other factors students may identify or recognize include political disputes or environmental hazards.
5. Have groups use the map to create networks of transportation.
Explain that students will next create a plan to make and sell their company's pencils. Students will need to use the map to determine where they can get the necessary materials. Have them work on the map to create a materials flow chart using lines, arrows, and symbols to show where they plan to get materials and how the materials will get to them. Then have students use arrows, lines, and symbols to show how they plan to move their products to the United States. Have each group use a different color to represent their company's materials transportation plan. Have the United States group do a similar exercise, but limited to how they can potentially get pencils from each of the countries. Tell the United States group that they will later have to pick one of the companies from which to purchase pencils.
6. Have groups present their plans and discuss.
Have each of the five groups present their plan to the class. Have the sixth group-the United States or the country where you live-take a moment to decide which company's pencils might be the best option for them to purchase. Then have them explain why. Allow students from other countries to try to convince the buyer country to purchase their pencils instead. Encourage students to reflect on how the countries are connected through the pencil production process. Ask: In what ways does the United States (or the country in which you reside) depend on other countries for the pencils we use? What other products can you think of that might be, like the pencil, "connected" to more than one country?

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Distribute pencils to students. Ask: What materials or natural resources do you think make up a pencil? Organize student ideas on the board. Then project the Geography of a Pencil handout. Discuss students' ideas while comparing them to the information in Table 1 on the handout.

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This is a sample of student work from the Supply Chain Project.