Where does our stuff come from? Why does it matter? Most of the things we buy and eat were made far from our homes. Today we’ll trace the journey of our stuff from raw material to finished product.
Driving Question: Where does our stuff come from and why does it matter?
- Check the tag on your shirt. Where was it made? Mine says, “Made in China.” Go check some of the other things you own: your shoes, your notebook, your electronics. Where does your stuff come from? Have you ever thought about how our stuff arrives in the stores where we buy it? It’s probably not as simple or as local as it seems.
Word of the Day: Supply Chain
- Definition: The sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity.
- A supply chain follows the entire life of a product: from raw material extracted from the ground to the factory that processes it to the distributors that move it to market and finally to the store where you buy it. All along the supply chain both humans and the environment are affected, sometimes negatively, sometimes positively.
Lesson
- Go to Khan Academy and do the activity Personal Supply Chain.
- Improvements in travel and communication over the last 500 years have led to the interconnection of the four world zones, but what does this mean for us today? In this activity, you will research an item you use every day in order to understand how it is made, how long it takes to travel to the area where you live, and how much energy is needed in the process.
