Lesson Plan #2
The Chain Game

Introduction

CTAUN's second lesson plan to be presented is ‘The Chain Game’ from Education for Development: A Teacher's Resource for Global Learning by Susan Fountain. This book was published by Heinemann (ISBN 0-435-08854-8) in conjunction with UNICEF.

This lesson is an activity for students age 12-15. It is a wonderful lesson that encompasses many lessons into one. If you use this lesson in your classroom and find it to be of value we would like to hear from you. Please email Narin Stassis atfirstvicechair@teachun.org with your remarks and suggestions.

The Chain Game by Susan Fountain

OBJECTIVES
To help students understand interdependence in trade between countries which have different resources; to allow them to experience the injustice that results from unequal distribution of resources.

MATERIALS
Newspapers, colored construction paper (or colored newspaper supplements), scissors, glue, staplers, pencils, rulers, distributed among the groups according to the plan described below. (Staplers are held back by the teacher until the last step in the Procedure, described below.)

PROCEDURE
Step 1 The students are divided into five groups, with approximately five students in each. Every group is given a box containing materials for the stimulation as follows:

Group 1- One sheet of newspaper, one sheet of colored paper, five pairs of scissors, five glue sticks, five pencils, five rulers.

Group 2- Four sheets of newspaper, one sheet of colored paper, three pairs of scissors, three glue sticks, three pencils.

Group 3- Six sheets of newspaper, two pairs of scissors, two glue sticks, two rulers.

Group 4- Ten sheets of newspaper, one ruler, one pencil.

Group 5- Fifteen sheets of newspaper, eight sheets of colored paper.

The groups are told that they each represent a different country. Their task is to make a product, in this case paper chains of five links each, which can be sold on the world market. They can earn five units of currency for each chain. These are sold to the teacher, who represents the world market for these chains.

Each link in the chain must be made from a strip of newspaper exactly 20cm long and 3cm wide. The links are made by overlapping exactly 2cm on each end and gluing them together. The teacher should make clear to the students that links which do not meet the world market standard- which are too long, short, wide, thin, or irregularly cut- will not be accepted. As the chains are sold, the teacher keeps a record of how much each group earns on the chalkboard.

The teacher should not explicitly point out that the groups are receiving unequal resources. If students argue that it is unfair, the teacher can reply that this simply the way that materials have been divided up for this game; however, the groups are free to negotiate trading of resources. They may also purchase resources with their earnings, but must notify the teacher, who will subtract the amount spent from their total earnings.

Step 2
Once the instructions have been given, the teacher allows the students to trade and make chains for ten to 15 minutes. After this time, she announces that because there are so many chains of high quality on the world market, the price is going down to three units of currency per chain of five links.

Step 3
After five more minutes at this price, the teacher announces that so many newspaper chains are now on the market that the price has dropped to one unit of currency per chain of five links. However, chains made of colored paper are increasingly desirable, and can be sold for five units of currency per chain of five links.

Step 4
After five more minutes of play, the teacher announces that a new technology for making chains has been developed which produces a superior product; this involves stapling the links together rather than gluing them. Chains made of stapled links will earn the current world market price plus 15 units of currency per chain of five links (i.e., 16 units for a newspaper chain of five stapled links, 20 units for a colored paper chain of five stapled links).

Five staplers are available, and may be bought from the teacher; a price should be set which would allow only the wealthiest groups to have the possibility of buying them.

Step 5
Once the staplers have been sold, the teacher should allow work to continue for another five to ten minutes. Then the game can be halted, and each group can tally its earnings.

Step 6
The class discusses the following questions. The teacher should attempt to draw parallels with global trade throughout the discussion:

Which group earned the most money? Which group earned the least? Why ?

What sorts of trades were negotiated? (Exchanging raw materials such as paper, for technology such as rulers and pencils; exchanges of technologies, such as scissors for rulers, etc.)

What sorts of interdependencies, or divisions of labor, were worked out within the groups?

Were any cooperative arrangements negotiated between the groups?

What was the effect on the wealthier groups of the falling world market price for chains? What was the effect on the poorer groups?

Which groups were able to purchase the new technology, i.e. the stapler?

Why did the development of a new technology allow the wealthy groups to get wealthier, while the poor groups got poorer?

VARIATION
Distribution of resources, and introduction of new technologies, can be varied in order to more closely simulate world trading conditions.

FOLLOW-UP
1. The students research the origins of products they commonly use at home or school to discover the sources of the raw material and labor, they may find that many products have multiple origins.

2. They can also research inequalities which presently exist in international trade. What countries are involved? What countries benefit from such imbalances?

IN THE CURRICULUM
The activity requires cooperation, decision-making and computation skills. It can be done as part of a humanities, economics, or mathematics class.

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