Section outline

  • Learning Intentions
    To recognise in practice the forces that impact market prices
    To understand the challenges of bartering and the benefits to exchange of using 'money'.

    Success Criteria
    I am aware of barter and the role of money in aiding exchange.
    I can explain forces that affect the market price of a product.

    Trading Activity (Skittles)
    See GClassroom for full instructions and GDocs to complete.

    Each student starts with 10 Skittles. There are different numbers of each colour available.
    Trade with other students by swapping Skittles of one colour with Skittles of another colour.

    You may swap different amounts (eg 1 orange with 4 green)
    The winning trader will hold all 5 colours and have more Skittles than others with all 5 colours.

    Questions (in GClassroom GDoc)

    1. Reflecting on the Skittles trading activity, state what trends you can see in the different values of the 5 colours. 
    2. We can think of the exchange values as the price of each colour. 
         Explain why the values (or ‘prices’) of each colour might be different. In other words, what affects the price of each colour?
    3. What is bartering? State whether you were ‘bartering’ when you were exchanging (swapping) Skittles?
    4. Why might it be difficult to barter in everyday life (eg at the supermarket, in a clothes shop, taking a bus journey, etc)?
    5. What might be an advantage of ‘bartering’? 
    6. Explain how official money, such as the NZ$, makes trade (exchange) easier?
    7. Explain how a ‘Green Dollar’ scheme work? (read https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/meet-the-green-dollar
    8. Explain what Crypto-currency is.