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Personal Supply Chain Project

Rachel Hansen

Our students love the Personal Supply Chain Project! We start by mapping the story of our stuff. Where was your shirt made? Shoes? Backpack? Electronics? Paper products? And MOST importantly, why does it matter?
 
One resource that makes a world of difference in their research is the Observatory of Economic Complexity. It visualizes data on the world’s exports and imports. And it's awesome.
 
At the end of the project, I love hearing students' big takeaways! It generates a great discussion.
 
Student 1: "It was very surprising finding out one object can have materials from all across the globe. There is so much that goes into making such a small object for one person. Many people, sources of transportation and work goes into getting the product to the store that makes it easy for you to get. So many things and people are behind the scenes making it easy for you that is is almost unbelievable."
 
Student 2: "How many things that any product in the entire world goes through just to get one thing. How we could potentially lower the amount of factories that we use to make an object. Some products go through about five factories and in that amount we would be destroying our environment, and animals."
 
Student 3: "I was surprised that something as small as Reese's Puffs has so many things in it, and it's like technically, I eat something from 3 world zones when I eat Reese's Puffs."
 
Student 4: "I was surprised to learn that nylon is made of natural gas. I never realized how environmentally unfriendly the leggings I wear are. Also, all the different parts required to make the leggings come from all over the world, which makes me feel bad, because of how bad for the environment all of this transportation is."
 
atlas.media.mit.edu/.../

Parents
  • I use Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt in place of the Personal Supply Chain Project because students struggled to track information about the origins of product materials. A few years ago students were on the phone with Proctor and Gamble trying to get information about Charmin and became so frustrated at the lack of progress.
    In the past I would preload the activity by providing students with a list of categories of household items and they would identify where they were made. We'd map it out then look at the map to determine where items were not made (we refer back to this when we do the Gapminder Activity).
    From here, I provide students with a map and we complete the Planet Money activity. I've found it to be very powerful.
    Time constraints often prefent us from going into more depth with the Personal Supply Chain, but I love your strategy and have not tried the OEC website - what a fantastic resource! Maybe modifying the activity to have the entire class work together on a Snickers bar would be a good way to provide students the opportunity to track the origins of a product and how it all comes together.
    Thank you so much for sharing your strategies!
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  • I use Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt in place of the Personal Supply Chain Project because students struggled to track information about the origins of product materials. A few years ago students were on the phone with Proctor and Gamble trying to get information about Charmin and became so frustrated at the lack of progress.
    In the past I would preload the activity by providing students with a list of categories of household items and they would identify where they were made. We'd map it out then look at the map to determine where items were not made (we refer back to this when we do the Gapminder Activity).
    From here, I provide students with a map and we complete the Planet Money activity. I've found it to be very powerful.
    Time constraints often prefent us from going into more depth with the Personal Supply Chain, but I love your strategy and have not tried the OEC website - what a fantastic resource! Maybe modifying the activity to have the entire class work together on a Snickers bar would be a good way to provide students the opportunity to track the origins of a product and how it all comes together.
    Thank you so much for sharing your strategies!
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