As students move through middle school, peer relationships tend to become an extremely important factor in their lives. In many cultures, clothing and other consumer products provide peer identity for teenagers. Focusing on this aspect of youth culture is one way to illustrate "the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface."

Geography, social studies, economics

Standard 11: "The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface"

Three hours

• Computer with Internet access
• A variety of magazines (weekly news magazines, National Geographic, Traveler, sports magazines, teen-oriented magazines) and newspapers, both national and local
• Poster board

Students will

• be able to classify several economic activities and to analyze these spatial patterns; and
• use advertisements for contemporary products to explore economic and geographic concepts presented in the lesson.

Give each student a magazine and ask him or her to focus on the full-page and two-page advertisements. Ask students to make a list of all the advertised items. (Students may need some help identifying what is being advertised, as some ads focus on services or community goodwill efforts not easily recognized as products.) After students have made their individual lists, have them meet in groups of three to five to make a collective list and write it on poster boards. Post these lists in the room.

Compare the lists. Discuss which items are common to all of the lists and which are unique. Introduce the idea that geographers and economists use four categories to identify certain types of economic activities: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary (see definitions at the end of this lesson). Briefly describe the differences among the four and provide examples. Have students create a four-column chart using the four categories as headings and work in pairs to classify each of the advertised items within this chart.

Have students go to the Xpeditions activity Lizzie's Morning and read the story by the same title (linked to in the Briefing). How does Lizzie's morning compare to their own?

Lead a discussion of the products and services that are produced locally, available locally, and unavailable locally. Put these lists on a new wall; then discuss how far people are willing to travel to obtain the items that are not locally available.

Hold a brief discussion on which of these products might be part of a worldwide "designer culture." In other words, which of the listed products do the students see as something that nearly everyone has or wants to have? Which products would be common no matter where one traveled or lived in the world? Do most people want the same products as everyone else? Does the answer depend on the sort of product under consideration? What gives a product widespread name recognition? How do name brands contribute to a designer culture? Is there truly a global designer culture? How do desires for designer or name-brand products create international trade flow?

After concluding the analysis of products and services in the ads and discussing the idea of a designer culture, have students identify products and services produced locally that are not of any designer culture but are part of the local economy. For example, a community may have a primary activity such as fishing or mining, a secondary activity such as a paper mill or an auto plant, a tertiary activity such as a regional hospital or military base, or a quaternary activity such as an insurance company or college.

Assign students to gather data on the local economy and have them prepare two graphics showing (1) how people are drawn to the area by its products or services (What kind of inflow into the region does the product or service create?) and (2) the geographic extent of the products or services (To which distant places is the product or service marketed or exported?).

Have students create an advertisement for one of your town's locally produced products for use in a trade journal, a magazine, or a travel brochure.

Assess the student-created advertisement, focusing on product appearance and appeal, central economic message, identification of locality or region, overall quality, and creativity.

Have students respond to one of the open-ended questions below. Assess their responses on the basis of geographic ideas and content, organization, word choice, and sentence structure.

• How does the "designer culture" within our larger culture affect the economic decisions that young teens make?
• Compare the "designer culture" depicted in the media with aspects of our local or regional economy.
• Why is it important to understand global trade networks as well as local or regional trade networks?
• Describe the types and array of economic activities that are integral to the products and services desired by young teenagers, particularly the students in your class.

• Look at magazine advertisements and compile a list of traits associated with various products or services (e.g., youth, beauty, cleanliness, wealth, fashion, speed, leisure, adventure). Discuss how these traits create expectations and desires among consumers.
  
  
• Invite a local retailer or wholesaler to the class to discuss the nature of his or her work. Focus your questions on trade shows, marketing decisions, and product sources.

Definitions:

Primary activity or sector: economic activity concerned with the exploitation of naturally occurring resources (agriculture, fisheries, forestry, mining, quarrying)

Secondary activity or sector: economic activity that modifies and combines materials produced by the primary sector (manufacturing, construction)

Tertiary activity or sector: economic activity concerned with the exchange and consumption of goods and services (transportation, entertainment, retail stores)

Quaternary activity or sector: economic activity that specializes in the assembly, transmission, and processing of information and in the control of other business enterprises (accounting, finance, banking, insurance, education, research, media, and government)

Jody Smothers Marcello of Blatchley Middle School in Sitka, Alaska, contributed classroom ideas for Standard 11.

About.com Cities and Transportation
International Forum on Globalization
National Geographic: MapMachine
National Geographic: Xpeditions ActivityLizzie's Morning