Trading Planets

In this interactive game, students will travel to the planet Plutopia on a trade mission. There, they will discover that trading goods without a common currency poses problems.

Overview

This roleplay game teaches students about trade and how trade is made easier by using a common currency.

Students will be separated into the trade delegations of Earth and the newly discovered planet Plutopia. Among them, they will exchange resources for points in three rounds: the first round in small groups, the second independently and the third independently but with a common currency. The objective is to get the most points after three rounds.

Along the way, students will discover the role that currency plays in making trade easier and how changes to environment and labour shortages can impact trade.

Big idea

Trade without a common currency is hard. Also, supply and demand in trade are influenced by outside factors like environmental conditions and labour shortages.

Total time

Approximately 75 minutes to carry out all three rounds of trading. You may want to leave more time for deeper discussion after each round.

Grade levels

Grades 4 to 8; Elementary Cycle Two to Secondary II

Number of participants

10 to 50 students

Subject area

Social studies

Learning objectives

Students will:

• compare the challenges of trade with and without a common currency
• discuss the effects of outside factors (such as droughts and labour shortages) on trade, supply and demand
• work together in teams to find common goals and learn about trading for what each team needs
• define commodity currency and fiat currency and recognize the difference between the two

Materials and set up

Game pieces

1. Download the templates.
2. Print the following (preferably on card stock and in colour, but black and white will work too):
• Resource card decks (one copy)
• Goal card decks (one copy)
• Spacebucks (one copy)
3. Cut out the cards and organize them into the four decks:
• Earth goals (green)
• Plutopia goals (blue)
• Earth resources (purple)
• Plutopia resources (orange)
4. Cut out the Spacebucks and organize them into 20 piles of $200 Spacebucks each (one $100 note and two $50 notes). Printing the file once gives you the correct amount for a class of 30–40 students.
5. Print or display Earth Resources to Trade and Plutopia Resources to Trade illustration to help students understand each of the resources that they will trade.

Classroom supplies

• A printer and card stock or paper
• Scissors
• A whiteboard and whiteboard markers
• Projector or display screen hooked up to a computer (optional)

Activity 1: Trade and commodity currency

Time

30 minutes

1.1 Introduction

Set the mood with an introduction.

Separate the class into two groups. Half of the students will be from Earth, and the other half from Plutopia. Arrange each group to sit together on opposite sides of the room.

Explain to students:

• Earthlings have travelled many light years to the planet Plutopia for their first ever intergalactic trade mission.
• They have brought resources to trade with Plutopians.
• The Plutopians are just as eager to trade—they are very excited about the resources that Earthlings have brought with them.
• Both Earth and Plutopia have resources to trade and resources that they want to get from the other planet.

Hand out or display the Earth Resources to Trade and Plutopia Resources to Trade illustration for Earthlings and Plutopians. You can discuss all the resources together as a class, or separately with the Plutopian and Earthling delegate groups, depending on the age of your students.

If needed, use a whiteboard to review. Divide the white board in two and write “Earth resources” on one side and “Plutopia resources” on the other. Explain each of the resources: write the resource name on the appropriate side of the whiteboard and describe it using the information in its bulleted list.

Earth resources for trading

• Wood
• Plutopia doesn’t have any trees.
• Earthlings have brought some wood to trade.
• Plutopians are very interested in this easy-to-use material for building.

• Water
• Plutopians have water, but it is very rare.
• Most of Plutopia’s water comes from its second-largest moon and must be filtered and refined.
• They are very interested in getting fresh water from Earth.
• Water is heavy, so the Earthlings couldn’t bring much.

• Vegetables and seeds
• Plutopians can eat the same things as Earthlings can, but because of their limited water supply, they can only grow vegetables that don’t need much water.
• They are very interested in fresh vegetables.
• Earthlings have brought lots of vegetables, as well as seeds to help Plutopians grow their own vegetables.

• House cats
• Plutopians don’t have pets.
• The first Earth visitors to Plutopia showed them some videos of cats, and it’s now the latest craze on the planet.
• They would love to trade for house cats.
• Because of the popularity of these animals, Plutopians will be able to resell these cats for a high price.
• Herding cats is not easy, but the Earthlings have managed to bring some with them.

• Agricultural technology
• Plutopians are not as advanced as Earthlings when it comes to agriculture.
• They are interested in learning about agriculture from Earth, but also in the technology Earth uses to grow crops.
• Unfortunately, tractors and other farming equipment are very big, so Earthlings could bring only one tractor.

• Jewellery, Earth clothes and musical instruments
• These unique Earth objects might be of interest to Plutopians, so Earthlings have brought some of each.

Plutopian resources for trading

• Gold, iron and plutopium
• Plutopia has a lot of mines that are rich in metals Earthlings are familiar with, such as gold and iron.
• These metals are valuable on Earth, so the Earthlings want to trade for as many as they can.
• Plutopians also mine a metal called plutopium, which they use to build their spaceships.
• Engineers on Earth are very keen to study this metal, especially because Plutopian spaceships have more advanced technology than those from Earth.

• Oil
• Plutopia is also rich in oil, which is used a lot on Earth. Earthlings want to trade for as much of this as they can get.

• Spaceships
• Plutopians have better spaceships than Earth does.
• Earthlings really want to bring a Plutopian spaceship back to Earth—this will make future trade missions easier and help engineers on Earth to learn how to build better ships.

• Plutopian beans
• Plutopians eat a special kind of bean that grows well on Plutopia—they can make all sorts of meals out of it.
• Scientists on Earth really want to look at these beans—they say there’s a chance to discover an easy and cheap way to provide people on Earth with their full nutritional needs.

• Space souvenirs, space clothes and space candy
• Ever since Plutopia was discovered, people on Earth have been very keen to get their hands on things that are uniquely Plutopian, like their clothes.
• Earthlings would pay a lot of money for a souvenir of Earth’s first trade mission to Plutopia.
• Plutopians have a delicious kind of candy that would be popular on Earth.

1.2 Round 1: Trading

For Round 1, you will use all the cards in the card decks. Give the Earth goals and Earth resources decks to the Earth team. Give the Plutopia goals and Plutopia resources decks to the Plutopia team.

Explain the goal and resource cards before you start the round:

• A resource is something that your team has brought to trade.
• A goal is a something that you want to get for your planet. For example, if you are from Earth then your goal is a Plutopia resource and vice versa.

Overall rules

• Each student will choose one resource card and one goal card.
• Try to trade your resource for your goal.
• Each card has a point value. This is the number of points that your team will earn if you complete your goal.
• You don’t earn any points for a trade if you don’t get the resource that matches your goal card.
• You will trade away your resource card but keep your goal card since you will only get points if you have a matching goal and resource card at the end of the game.
• The cards that are worth more points are rarer. For example, we know that a Plutopian spaceship will earn the Earth team a lot of points, but we also know that Plutopia has only one spaceship to trade.
• You will each get to choose your cards, but think carefully about what cards you’ll choose—do you think your trade would be fair?

Instructions for the first round:

In the first round, you will only be able to trade with a small group.

You will have to work together as a team to get as many points as possible. This means that some team members will have to choose goals that are worth fewer points to increase the chance of making trades. Discuss with your team how you plan to trade for your goals and who should take which goals.

Give the teams time to discuss their strategies. Circulate and remind them of the instructions.

Once each student has chosen a resource card and a goal card, the teams are ready to start trading.

Designate a space in the middle of the classroom as the trading floor.

For Round 1, divide students into four smaller groups. Each trading group should include an equal number of team members from Earth and Plutopia—for example four Plutopians and four Earthlings. If the class can’t be divided evenly, it’s okay to have an uneven number in the group. They can only trade within these groups. Groups will gather on the trading floor.

Give the signal for them to start their trading. Many students will not be able to make a trade this round. That’s okay. End the trading round after about five minutes. Once they have completed their trades, they need to show you their traded resource cards and matching goal cards to get points.

On the whiteboard, tally the scores for each team. The teams only get points for trades if those items were also their goals.

1.3 Round 1: Discussion

Have the students take a seat for discussion.

• Who was able to trade for the resource they needed right away? Who wasn’t? Why not?
• What was your strategy? Did it work?
• Do you think your trades were fair?
• What would have made trading easier?
  • If there was a bigger group to trade with.
  • If they knew what the other group wanted.

Gather all the card decks and reorganize them into the original decks before the next round. Ask students for help to make this step faster.

Activity 2: Trade shortages

Time

15 minutes

2.1 Introduction

Share some important news with your students:

• A year has passed since the last round.
• Earth has recently experienced a drought and will have fewer vegetables and less water and wood to trade.
• Plutopia has experienced a labour shortage, so it has fewer workers to mine gold, Plutopium and iron to trade.

2.2 Round 2: Trading

For Round 2, remove the following cards from the Earth resources and Plutopia resources decks to reflect the changed economic situation:

From the Earth resources deck:

• 1 wood card
• 1 water card
• 4 vegetable cards

From the Plutopia resources deck:

• 1 gold card
• 3 iron cards
• 1 plutopium card

Ask the two teams to go back to their own sides of the classroom. Give the goal and resource cards to the appropriate teams.

Explain the instructions for the second round:

• In this round, you will be able to trade with anyone from the other team.
• You are allowed to be creative—if you want to make three-way trades or trade one item for two, you can do this.
• Follow all the other rules from the previous round.
• Discuss with your team how you plan to trade for your goals.

Give the teams time to discuss their strategies. Circulate and remind them of the instructions.

Once each student has chosen a resource card and a goal card, the teams are ready to start trading. Ask both teams to come back to the trading floor.

Give the signal for them to start their trading. Many students will not be able to make a trade this round. That’s okay. End the trading round after about five minutes. Once they have completed their trades, they need to show you their traded resource cards and matching goal cards to get points.

On the whiteboard, tally the scores for each team. The teams only get points for trades if those items were also their goals.

2.3 Round 2: Discussion

Have the students take a seat to discuss Round 2.

• Who was able to trade for the resource they needed right away? Who wasn’t? Why not?
• What effect did the environmental conditions and labour shortages have on trading?
• Was this round easier or harder than the last round? Why?
• What would have made trading easier?
  • If you didn’t have to exchange one resource for another.

If students don’t bring up the idea of currency during the discussion, lead them to it.

• When we go to the store to buy an apple, we don’t have to bring another item to trade. We bring money. The storekeeper who has apples doesn’t trade them for oranges; they sell them for money. They can then use that money to buy something they want.

Discuss the importance of currency:

• When there are so many people to trade with, it gets complicated to figure out who has what and who wants what in the time you have.
• What if we had one common thing we could use to buy things from each other?
• We call this currency.
  • A currency is anything that has value and that can be exchanged for something else.
  • The resources that we exchanged on the trading floor are currency, but their value may not be the same for both planets. These traded resources are called commodity currencies.
    • Commodity is another word for resource. It’s anything that has value that can be traded, bought or sold.
  • A common currency, with an agreed-upon value, would help us make trades that both sides think are fair. An example of a common currency is the money we use today.
    • We call this a fiat currency. It’s issued by a country for trade among its people and with other countries.
    • The Bank of Canada is Canada’s central bank. One of its jobs is to issue bank notes so that Canadians have the currency they need to buy and sell things.

Gather all the cards and reorganize them into their original decks before the next round. Ask students for help to make this step faster. Return the resource cards you took out for Round 2 to the appropriate decks. You won’t need the Earth and Plutopia goal decks for Round 3.

Activity 3: Trade and fiat currency

Time

30 minutes

3.1 Introduction

Introduce Round 3:

• It’s now two years later, and the Plutopians have decided to fly to Earth for another trade mission.
• They want to get there fast, so they aren’t bringing any resources with them.
• Instead, they have some money from the new Intergalactic Central Bank.
• They are hoping they brought enough money because they aren’t sure how much the Earthlings think their resources are worth in this new currency.
• Earthlings will be able to charge whatever they want for their resources, and they need to make enough money to bring on their next mission to Plutopia to buy goods there.

3.2 Round 3: Trading

Explain to students that there will be two smaller rounds taking place now that a common currency has been added.

Ask the two teams to go back to their own sides of the classroom.

Part A

Give the Earth resources deck to the Earth team. Give each Plutopian $200 in Spacebucks (one $100 note and two $50 notes).

Explain the instructions for the first part of the round:

• In this round, you can trade with anyone you want, but this time you’ll be trading (or selling) resources for Spacebucks.
• Earthlings, you can choose more than one resource to sell.
• For Earth, the goal is to get as many Spacebucks as you can for your resources. You can negotiate and make deals with the Plutopians.
• Plutopians, you are allowed to pool your Spacebucks together to buy more resources.
• This round, you get points for all purchases that you make.
• You must work together as a team to get as many points as possible.

Give the teams time to discuss their strategies. Circulate and remind them of the instructions.

Once each Earthling has chosen one or more resources, the teams are ready to start trading. Both teams move back to the trading floor.

Give the signal for them to start their trading. Many students will not be able to make a trade this round. That’s okay. End the trading round after about five minutes. Once they have completed their trades, Plutopians need to show you their traded resource cards to get points.

On the whiteboard, tally the score for the Plutopian team. Plutopians will get points for every resource they bought.

The Earth team does not get any points yet; they will have a chance to buy Plutopian resources next.

Part B

Introduce the next part:

• Let’s fast-forward another year!
• The Earthlings have travelled to Plutopia with their hard-earned Spacebucks to buy resources from Plutopia.

Have the teams move back to their sides of the room. Give the Plutopia resources deck to the Plutopia team.

Earthlings have only the money they earned from the Plutopians in the last round.

Explain that the same instructions apply as for the first part of Round 3, except that the roles are reversed.

Give the teams time to discuss their strategies. Circulate and remind them of the instructions.

Once each Plutopian has chosen one or more resources, the teams are ready to start trading. Ask them to come back to the trading floor.

Give the signal for them to start their trading. Many students will not be able to make a trade this round. That’s okay. End the trading round after about five minutes. Once they have completed their trades, they need to show you their traded resource cards to get points.

On the whiteboard, tally the score for the Earth team. Earthlings will get points for every resource they bought. Tally the points for each team.

3.3 Round 3: Discussion

Have the students take a seat to discuss the entire game.

• What differences did you notice between each round?
• How did having a common currency change your trades?
• What challenges did you face in the game?
• How did factors outside of your control, such as labour shortages or droughts, affect you? How did these factors affect supply and demand?
• Can you think of any real-life examples where factors outside of your control may affect whether you can buy some resources?
• How did you work as a team?
• What did this activity teach you about trade?
• What is a commodity currency? What is a fiat currency? How do these currencies work differently?

Extensions

• Ask students to research and define primary and secondary resources. Plutopia and Earth have some of each.
• For younger students, trade real-world goods in a fun role play to learn about the basic economic concepts of consumers and producers, goods and services, and trade. Check out our lesson plan Trade Rules (grades 3 to 5; Elementary Cycles Two and Three).
• For older students, connect the game to regional and global examples of specialization, comparative advantage and opportunity cost. Use our lesson plan Trading Up to demonstrate these concepts (grades 6 to 9; Elementary Cycle Three to Secondary III).
• Read more about trade The Economy, Plain and Simple article “Trading Up: How countries benefit from freer trade.”
• Find historical examples of currencies. Some examples can be found in the Bank of Canada Museum’s online collection and in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Which of the examples below can your students find?
• Commodity Currencies:



Cowry shells
From as early as the 13th century B.C., these shells were used as a currency Africa, Polynesia and parts of Asia—especially China. As a currency, cowry shells were a great success. They were durable, portable, universally recognizable and nearly impossible to counterfeit, so they remained a viable trading tool for thousands of years. Cowry exchange value varied greatly with availability, giving it more buying power the further it was from the ocean. In China, the character for cowry forms the root symbol for many words related to money or value.



Salt bricks
Because of its high value and usefulness, salt was used as a medium of exchange in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa for thousands of years. Salt makes strange money. For a start, it readily dissolves in water and it can be very crumbly. But it has great advantages over gold: with salt you can clean wounds, preserve meat and flavour supper. Roman soldiers received a measure of salt with their pay, and the Latin word for salt gives us the root word for “salary.”



Wampum
Before contact with Europeans, Indigenous peoples in North America had well-established trading networks throughout the continent. Among the goods traded were purple and white beads called wampum. Indigenous peoples on the Atlantic coast collected shells, made beads and traded them with other Indigenous communities as well as European settlers for resources like food and furs. The beads were also used to make wampum belts, which are important records of laws, treaties and historical events.

• Fiat currencies:



Playing Card money
Playing cards were used as a form of emergency money at a time when the colony of New France constantly suffered from a shortage of hard currency—that is, gold and silver coins. During an acute coin shortage in 1685, the Intendant of New France, Jacques de Meulles (that’s the guy who oversaw the colony’s finances), resorted to issuing playing cards to pay the troops who were stationed throughout the colony. Merchants were encouraged to accept the playing cards as payment with the promise that they would be exchanged for gold and silver coins when a fresh shipment arrived from France.



Ming Dynasty note
Chinese notes of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) are some of the oldest paper money still in existence. This one, circa 1368–98, was issued by the Emperor Taizu. Home to the invention of paper and the printing press, China was also the first nation to print paper money. This note is worth 1 guan or 1,000 “cash” pieces: round coins made with a hole in the centre that allowed them to be strung together. One such cash string is pictured on the face of the note. The note also carries a printed warning that counterfeiting this note was punishable by death.