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Tools of the Trade
Seniors in the IB Global Politics class explore the principles of international trade through friendly competition
It’s a Friday morning during long period, and the ten students in Marcus Jones’ IB Global Politics HL class are busy cutting pieces of construction paper into perfect shapes — triangles, squares and circles. Once they have a set of five, they rush to the front of the class, where Jones, in the role of an international financier, is ready to pay them for their wares.
“If you want 3 cents, then you’ve got to give me a set of five perfect squares,” says Jones, “and you have to make money because every 10 minutes you owe me 10 cents for your basic needs, and you’ve got to pay. And if you can't pay, then I also represent the IMF [for a loan].”
It’s called the “International Trade Game,” and each group of three students represents an imaginary country with raw materials and tools with which to make their products. The twist? When the game begins, each country opens a shoebox containing their country’s resources. Some teams have the best tools, some have the most raw materials while others have very little of either. “You are not necessarily in direct competition with one another,” Jones advises. “Although it may feel that way and you can treat it that way if you want to.”
Each iteration of the game can take multiple paths. Will the team with all of the raw materials be able to use them? Will the teams collaborate or exploit their advantages? After a few rounds — as some countries begin to slide into debt while others are frustrated by their inability to mass produce — the deal making begins.
“How about two pieces of paper for a ruler?” one team offers.
“What if you borrow our scissors for 10 minutes in exchange for 30% of whatever you produce?” counters another.
As alliances form and reshape, the students gain a fast-paced understanding of the relationship between technology and resources as they tease apart abstract concepts like “dependency theory” between countries in the global north and global south that they have been reading about in their studies.
“In what way did you guys reflect a Hobbesian worldview throughout this game? Deals that just benefit you, right?” asks Jones during the game’s debrief. “I think we probably saw an element of Hans Morgenthau kind of power politics a little bit. Looking out for your own best interests and trying to make every deal in a way that enhanced your own power? What do you all think?”
As the second semester begins for these IB seniors, Jones has found that students enjoy a break from the traditional classroom and benefit from a hands-on way of exploring topics they’ve been reading about. “The game is a fun way to show some of the flaws in development theory and to illustrate the inequality in global trade,” says Jones. “It also helps to reinforce some of the theories we discuss on human nature, as many students become Machiavellian in their pursuit of profits.”
IB Global Politics HL is just one of 20 higher-level International Baccalaureate courses offered at Trinity. The course helps students to understand abstract political concepts by grounding them in real-world examples and case studies. Developing international mindedness and an awareness of multiple perspectives is at the heart of this course. It encourages dialogue and debate, nurturing the capacity to interpret competing and contestable claims.
In 1994 Trinity Episcopal School became the first school in the Richmond Metropolitan Area authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, which thoroughly prepares students for the academic rigors of college while emphasizing a mix of intellectual challenge, intercultural understanding and respect, and independent research. Trinity has been a proud IB World School, an international standard of excellence, for over 30 years.
Learn more about IB at Trinity at www.trinityes.org/IB.
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