Giles County and the Global Economy

Giles County needs economic development. In this multidisciplinary project, students explore and encourage economic development by identifying the extent to which businesses are interrelated and involved in global economics. Projects promote development by placing information on the internet and providing information to the Giles County Entrepreneurial Incubators. Projects also allow students to apply knowledge from such courses as geography, economics, and English.

B. Courses and Units:

English	researching, synthesizing information, reporting in oral/written forms
World Geography	local and international economics

C. Goals, behaviors, and assessment

Goals(know, understand)	Behaviors(action verb list)	Assessment Instruments
WORLD GEOGRAPHY: know about Giles County businesses know about other countries understand how businesses are interrelated and local/global interdependence (SOL 10.12)	WORLD GEOGRAPHY: identify businesses in Giles County with 25 or more employees survey businesses ownership origin products inputs origin research the Chamber of Commerce and Radford University to identify those nations with the greatest impact on Giles's economy analyze those countries that have the greatest economic impact on Giles County present research findings and conclusions to the county Chamber of Commerce, Internet users, Entrepreneurial Incubators write names of countries/businesses on maps	WORLD GEOGRAPHY: traditional geography testing rubric for poll questions rubric for information analysis traditional geography testing rubric for presentations accuracy of maps
ENGLISH: (SOLs) 9.4 understand information synthesis 9.6 writing 9.7 written/oral presentations	ENGLISH: synthesize survey information write survey questions compose reports compose thank-you letters prepare presentation for Chamber of Commerce	ENGLISH: rubric for information synthesis rubric for survey questions rubric for report rubric for thank-you notes rubric for written/oral presentations

D. Activities

List students activities step-by-step in chronological order.

Classroom Activities (including reflection activities)

Out-of-classroom Activities (including surveys, requests for resources, etc.)

introduce SETS business project by providing overall plan, including roles and expectations lecture on significance of economic interdependence brainstorm companies in Giles County with 25+ employees set timetables/schedules for surveys devise standard surveys role play phone calls using rubric divide into work teams and assign companies discuss criteria on researching discuss survey results (whole class) and generate new questions host guest speakers (as needed) write thank-you letters to each company (guest speakers, field trips, surveys) discuss country/cultural relevance of survey results (with mapwork) produce written report, to include charts produce presentations practice presentations using presentations rubric discuss student attitudes and feelings about project and what the students learned

(to be done following step 8 in left column) conduct phone surveys (to be done following step 9 in left column) call to invite guest speakers (as needed) to answer generated questions (to be done following step 10 in left column) field trips to businesses to gather information about their use of international goods and services (to be done following step 15 in left column) presentation to the Chamber of Commerce (to be done following above step) presentation to Randi Lemmon (of Giles County Entrepreneurial Incubators) (to be done following above step) presentation to Town Managers

E. Project Extension

Selected Objective(s):

• learning to use graphing calculators and computer statistical programs

Related Community Problem(s):

• youth lack awareness of careers within Giles County

Additional Project Idea(s):

• in-depth study of inputs cost analysis for incubators (math class)
• company-related extended visits (language/social studies)
• speakers on local career opportunites
• student internships at the Entrepreneurial Incubator