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School-to-Work News, Fall 1997
In Washington State, we are fond of quoting the statistic that one out of every four jobs here is related to international trade. But what does that really mean?
Very little, probably, to the average student here, for whom "international trade" might mean headlines about something called "NAFTA fast track" but not much more. After all, international trade is something big, something world leaders negotiate, but probably not part of a student’s future, right?
Well, no. And the Boomerang Box will help change that perception. The Boomerang Box is an innovative public-private partnership designed to help students learn about international trade and their role in it. Its partners include APL, one of the world’s largest shipping companies; the Port of Seattle; Sound Schools, a consortium of public schools in West Seattle, Washington, and King County.
The Boomerang Box is a 40-foot cargo container that has been decorated with oversized postage stamps designed by 70 Seattle public school students. It will leave Seattle in late October and travel to Chicago and back by rail, then will be sent to sea for a six-month expedition around Asia. It will return to Seattle in May ’98 at the end of the school year. Throughout its travels, the Boomerang Box will carry real goods between customers, demonstrating in a very tangible way how the clothes wear, the things we use and the food we eat are the products of international trade.
Students can track the Boomerang Box through the World Wide Web: www.apl.com/boomerangbox. The Web site follows the container’s expedition with interactive maps. It includes information on the countries and ports the container visits, the goods it carries, and the logistic of shipping goods, and features weekly "trade topics" with study questions students can take off from.
Most important, though, from the perspective of getting students to think about
a future in international trade, are the "people profiles" the web offers. These
profiles — some of which are being written by students themselves —
highlight the jobs of ordinary people involved in trade: a software engineer,
apple grower, container crane operator, port commissioner, and others. The stories
will help students connections to the people all around them whose lives are touched
by international trade.
The Boomerang Box Web site also offers a forum in which teachers and school can
share curriculum ideas, start pen pal exchanges, and post the progress they’ve
made in their classrooms. The Web site for this project offers a starting place
for ideas and projects. The real magic, however, is happening in the classroom,
as students experience the world around them from the perspective of the painted
container.
Calling All Teachers!
The Boomerang Box is a project designed to make international trade fun and relevant for students from K-12. And it’s a chance to share your ideas with others all over the world.
Follow the container on the web. The Boomerang Box Web site tracks the container each week, and provides maps, information about where the container is and what it’s carrying, and weekly trade topics, study question, and profiles of interesting people in trade: www.apl.com/boomerangbox.
Meet teachers and students from around the world. Want to set up a pen-pal relationship for your students? Check our "Pen Pal Classifieds" on the Web site and see if there is a match for you!
Share your ideas. As you students follow the Boomerang Box, share your lesson plans, projects, or students’ work with us... and we’ll post it on the web. You can reach us at: boomerang@apl.com.
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On the classroom side, a group of Seattle public school teachers — through the Sound Schools coalition — is dreaming up ideas to make the container’s travels come alive. Some of the ideas in the works: a refrigerator box "container ship" to be built by an elementary school and travel between classrooms trading goods; a video documentary on the people who make and sell paper stock, filmed and written by high school students; and interviews of the people in students’ neighborhoods (appliance store owners, grocery store managers, even parents) about the ways international trade touches their lives.
International trade can be a complicated as multinational trade negotiations with billions of dollars at stake. Or it can be as simple as a flower out of season or the latest computer game. As the Boomerang Box travels the world, full of goods, it provides a fun and very relevant way to illustrate international trade’s role in our lives and encourages young people to dream of trade in their futures.
For more information:
E-mail: boomerang@apl.com
Phone: 206-728-3880
What Can You do In Your Classroom?
Follow the container on its expedition. Once a week, log on to the Boomerang Box Web site (or have students log on). You will be able to learn where the Boomerang Box is, what it is carrying, and where it is going next. You and your students can track its expedition on a map in your classroom and review basic facts about the country it is visiting. For an assignment, ask your students to write a short report on the country or port the container is visiting or on the goods it is carrying.
Learn more about a trade topic. Each week, the Boomerang Box Web site will feature a "trade topic", such as, "Why are containers used?" Review the trade topic with your students. Ask them to answer to study questions provided with each trade topic.
Learn about jobs in international trade. The Boomerang Box will feature regular "people profiles" about people who have jobs in international trade. Review those profiles with your students. Then, make them local, by having your students interview their parents or business people in your neighborhood about whether or not they work in international trade. Does the manager at you neighborhood grocery store order fruit that is grown in South America? Does your photographer neighbor take pictures that are featured in a magazine in Japan? What do the people in you neighborhood do with international trade?
Study the "math" of international trade. Why do different countries have different kinds of currency? How do we trade goods back and forth? Younger students can learn the simple math of having to convert from one thing (say oranges) to another (dollars). Older students can learn about converting between currencies. And high school students can take the "trade math" lesson one step further by researching NAFTA and other trade regulations.
Learn the logistics of international trade. Ever wonder how a container gets on a ship... and how the workers at the other side of the ocean know where to send each container? The Boomerang Box Web site will offer basic information about the logistics of moving goods around the world. For field trips or more detailed information, please call the Port of Seattle: 206-728-3880.
Learn how we use international trade. Have your students inventory items in their homes that come from other countries. How many countries does each student’s home "trade" with?
Learn what other schools are doing. The Boomerang Box Web site will include regular updates of what schools around the world are doing to follow the container. Log on to learn what these schools are doing, to add you own ideas, or to set up pen-pal relationships for your students.
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