Disappearing Elephants 2015 Activities  

Activities: 2.3 Trade Route Mapping Activity

Disappearing Elephants Trade Route Mapping Activity

Aim: Students will be introduced to international trade and will be able to understand the complex trading system that surround the legal and illegal ivory markets. Content Objectives:

• Outline ivory trade routes throughout the century • Locate different ivory trading hubs throughout the world • Explain the changing ivory trade routes and the illegal ivory market • Examine and question changing trade routes as the result of international

regulations and changing market demand • Predict future ivory trade routes • Label and define maps

Vocabulary:

• Ban • Black market • CITIES • Customs • Demand • Export • Free trade • International trade • Import • Ivory • Market • Port • Raw ivory • Seize • Smuggling • Stockpile • Supply • Trade route • Traffic • Worked ivory

Disappearing Elephants 2015 Activities  

Materials: • Disappearing Elephants overview, posters, handouts, and online materials • Large world maps for students • Colored pencils and markets

Procedure: Hour one: Understanding International Trade

a) Students will divide into groups and the label on one of their items of clothing, making a list of where their clothes/belongings came from. Next they will identify those countries on a map. Discuss different ways that materials travel throughout the world and why they take the routes they do. b) Have students pick one of their clothes items and write the story of how they think the item got from the original country to its final destination.

Hour two: Research Ivory Trade Routes

a) Watch the film Battle for Elephants or use Disappearing Elephants material to explain ivory trade issue. b) Assign trade route map activity. Students will research different trade routes throughout history as their homework. Ask students to prepare a list of countries that have demanded ivory and a list of countries that have supplied ivory.

Hour three: Create the Map

a) Students will pair up into groups of two or three and receive a large map of the world and colored markers. Explain that students must map the changing trade routes of the ivory throughout the past century: the colonial days, during the CITIES ban, and modern routes. Let them explore possible illegal routes if they can justify their answers. Have students use different colors to represent different trade routes throughout time.

 

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