Money+Systems



[|Key Vocabulary]

[|Wonder Wall](questions about Money)

[|Ablai Today] (our cities newspaper)


 * 1) Creating the World**

We decided what the natural environment will look like and made a map, we also gave it a name.

Welcome to Ablai!

Next, we decided on how the natural environment looked and felt. We made some posters:



Then, we broke into groups and decided on where we would build our city. Everybody chose the exact same spot! We created this document with all the reasons for choosing this spot.



Finally, we wrote short stories about what it would be like if we were the only humans on this island.....




 * 2) Building the Economy**

We had to think about how the country uses and spends money. Then, we had to make some decisions to make our world simpler.

We brainstormed a list of jobs (how people get money), then sorted them into categories. Then we decided how Ablai would use each category, and what people living in our world could buy and spend money, and how they would get their money. This is an outline of our Economy:


 * Population:** 1 000 000
 * Currency**: Bubs


 * 3) Natural Resources and Manufacturing**

Our everyday lives are filled with so much more stuff than this! This list is small.... but still, how do we make all this stuff?

We need natural resources, and we need manufacturing.

We created a [|googledoc] listing all the natural resources we need, and what we will manufacture with those resources.

We watched the [|Story of Stuff - Electronics], and made our own Manufacturing flowchart.

Then, we made a list of the various buildings and factories we need. And updated our MAP!


 * 4) Cost of Products**

We investigated how much things cost, and why they cost that much. Products that we buy go through a process to get to our hands. Each step of the process costs money, and adds to the final cost of the product. After a group discussion, we created this diagram:

We then tried to explain this process in terms of a real product from the city of Ablai. Each group chose a different product, and made a mind-map of the associated expenses. Then we drew a comic showing the whole process, in ten minutes!



Next step was to start thinking about costs. We made a list of all the associated costs that go into a product. - Advertising - Factory - Machines - Raw Materials - Labour - Power - Shipping - Administration

There are probably many more!

Then, we found out how to calculate the Unit Cost. If a company wants to set its price, it first has to know how much it costs to make one product. This is the total expenses divided by the number of products we make. Next we imagined a fake product (a chair), and we investigated three different pricing strategies, low, mid, and high. Finally, we reflected on the whole process and what it means to the idea of PRICE.

[|or view the GoogleDoc]

We decided that we would sell the chair for the mid-price. Then we worked out the profit.



After we had the profit, we needed to decide what to do with it. It has a hard decision, and there were many factors to consider. We got very tangled. So we used a Sustainability Compass to help untangle us. But, it made us even more tangled! Sometimes life is messy....



We realized the following things:

- we felt more tangled than before and had trouble finding answers - mostly started with negatives then found the positives - the Nature section was mostly red, but the other three were mostly blue - Nature seems to be forgotten about, and there were very few positives - bigger business for us equals more money for lots of people, the connected businesses that make machines, cut trees, carpenters, plumbers, etc. - HOWEVER, as one company grows, another one might get smaller, which will mean less money for those people - Is money the most important thing? How much money do we need?

Then we wrote a reflection on this. As a person who lives in this society, what is my responsibility in this great tangle of knots?

Click [|Here]to read Reflections

To study this, we read an article on Supply and Demand
 * Supply and Demand**

Then, we each chose a product we wanted to buy. We chose the 4-5 most important factors for the product (size, speed, memory, design, etc) and then went on the iPads and searched for the items. We made a list of our top 4-7 choices. After we had all of our choices, we had to choose which one we wanted. We then wrote a letter to somebody, explaining why we bought the one we did.



After that, we brainstormed the different people who would have made money because we bought something. The web of connections of very interesting and large!

1) We each asked a question that was interesting to us 2) We researched the question and made notes 3) We took and notes and planned a presentation 4) We made the presentation in Haiku Deck 5) We gave a presentation to the class Here are our presentations: [|Nini], [|Meu], [|Sho], [|Nico], [|Maria], [|Jiwon], [|Moemi], [|Briana], [|Grace], [|Hiromu]
 * Independent Inquiries **

We needed to look at how we play a part in the economics of the world. What is our responsibility as consumers? What are the responsibilities of companies?
 * Responsibility**

First, we dissected our central, "The Economic Choices we make affect how society works". Then, we used our sustainability compass to think about responsibility from different perspectives.



It was some good thinking. Next, we needed a way to put all this together and share our learning in some way. Each group decided to make an iMovie.

[|5 Lessons of Responsibility] [|Speak up] [|Ocean Dumper]