Students will learn about fair trade and how producers can be helped to get a reasonable income, especially in poorer countries of the world.

QCA schemes of work: Unit 10: Debating a global issue, Unit 21: People and the environment

Computers, world map, t-shirts, food labels. Information on export crops and fair trade commodities.

Introduction:

Show two different t-shirts to the class. Ask for their ideas about ways they are different. This exploration should move beyond appearance to start thinking about production and trade. Then ask: what the term fair trade means to you? and have you learned about it in any lessons or personal activities out of school?

Activities:

1. Working with computers or on plain paper: Design a T-shirt and label it to show where and how it was produced.
   
   
2. Introduce the activities in this area of the site: The 'Frank Does Fair Trade' animation and The Lowdown information section. It may be best to access the fair trade activity first, as this makes the economic issues very simple and is easy to follow. The lowdown can be introduced between sessions to reinforce learning or as final summary activities.



3. Share with the whole class recent news headlines about UK companies relocating operations to poorer countries, for example telephone information services moving to Bangalore in south India.



4. Design or draw a positive/negative view of what the term 'global community' means, based on this example. "Show people working a call centre - or a simple phone link - and slogans of your choice to show possible benefits and possible disadvantages of doing this (e.g. provides jobs in India / takes away jobs in UK).



5. Share the results of this activity by displaying the graphics so the whole class can discuss them.



6. After doing this activity, students can get involved in active citizenship for the global community by doing their own fair trade project, as Diss High School did with a fashion show and Hampstead School by setting up a website (see Get Involved). Or they can visit the CBBC news page on fair trading in cocoa (see 'Go off on a tangent!').

Ask students to carry out an investigative survey of food products in local shops and where they come from. Present the results as a table or on a world map.

OR: Ask students to write a play script where young people from two families from different countries get to visit each other's home. Students should explore what their daily lives are like, what economic differences there are and what can be done so that all young people in the world have at least a minimum standard of health and happiness.