Fair Trade: The Banana Mystery: Why are bananas cheaper than apples?
Our Inquiry Cycle Model
The Inquiry Process is not a linear process
Tuning in Session 1: Bananas Don't Grow on Trees
The Research
Students Googled the prices between apples and bananas.
We recorded down a bunch of costs from various locations and looked at the most expensive versus the cheapest.
Reasoning
Students reasons for the difference in price between apples and bananas
- Quality of the product
- Shelf life
- Cost and profit
- One might be harder to grow
- More demand (popularity)
- Location the fruit grows - cultural or religious beliefs and values
- Economy
- Exchange rate
- Brands and types
Price Points
Students generated a bunch of reasons for the differences in prices for bananas between local stores.
- Countdown is trying to make more money
- Pak N Save wants more customers by lowering their prices
- Competition between stores
- Shipping costs for the bananas between each store may vary
- The place they are importing from might change and then all the costs change
- Different supplies = different costs
- Storage options (Shelf life) - might be stored in a cooler or warmer place
- Brands and types change the price
- Pak N Save might have had more in stock and therefore could make theirs cheaper
The Mystery of why Bananas are cheaper than apples?
Students in their table groups then worked through the clues they were given.
The organised them into 3 categories
1. Important Clue
2. Clue
3. Non Relevant
Once each table group had discussed and drawn conclusions we talked about the importance of each piece of information. We used the clues to draw conclusions about why bananas were cheaper than apples.
Each group of students was given a role and had to argue/negotiate for their wage.
The students really enjoyed being able to argue and negotiate what they felt their role was worth.
It took a total of 5 rounds of negotiations to get each group to total 30 cents per each banana.
Round 1: Negotiate within their team
Round 2: Move around the room and try and convince other teams to lower their prices
Round 3: Negotiate again with only their own teams
Round 4: 1 person from each group presented to the class why they felt they were worth what they were asking for. Class debated on if they felt the demands were fair.
Round 5: Negotiate in teams once again (This round took the longest as we were 4 cents over and no team wanted to budge)
After all the negotiations I shared with the class what the actual prices each worker in the chain got per banana.
This prompted a lot of discussion. We used the discussion questions as prompts to steer our discussions in the right direction. Students shared a lot of their own experiences or stories their parents had shared about similar situations.
Overall majority of the class felt like the price of bananas should be raised to help support all those in the chain to meet their basic needs.
Good morning. I came across your blog via Twitter...and am interested in this 'Banana vs Apples' lesson you've got going on here. Looks like you and your students have experienced a lot of learning and been rather thoughtful about this topic. Is there a lesson plan for this please?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll hear from you...Jane from Mahana School.