2TVWO-International Awareness

2TVWO-International Awareness

Chapter 1: What is 'international awareness'?

Gongratulations, You have just reached the webpage for the subject 'International Awareness' (IA). Here you can find both practical infromation and the lesson material needed for this course. But before we start, you might have been wondering what ínternational awareness is acctually is all about?

International awareness is a subject that studies how people from all over the world influence each other. This subject tries to enhance our standing of the planet and its population by combining geographical, historical and economical information, To fully understand the impact of global phenomena, we need to study the planet as a whole. Consequently, international awareness focusses on globalization in its many different forms.

Globalization is an important and influential process for (almost) every human being on this planet. Globalization  is not something completely new. Ancient Greeks already knew the earth was round, the Dutch had their ‘golden age’ due to intercontinental trade and even our modern internet has been around since 1993.

Nevertheless, never in human history has humanity been so interconnected as in the 21st century. The world has become’ globalized’ in many different ways. But what does this tricky concept actually mean? First, we will need to get our definitions straight by doing the excerises below.

TIP: Did you know that you can find definitions of words using Google?

Oefening: Exercise 1- What is globalization?

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1.1 Group-challenge 'Mapping The World'?

Group Challenge- Mapping The World?

step 0. Watch the video below  which contains some basic knowledge of planet earth.

 

step 1. Divide the class in groups of 4 students. Each group member receives a number from 1-4.  

step 2. Discuss a group-strategy that will enable you to draw the best map of the world without an example. (dont share your strategy with other groups) 

step 3. Every student with number 1 can look at the world map for 10 seconds. Afterwards you return to group and start drawing what you remeber, Subsequently, the numbers 2, 3, and 4 can do the same. This porces will be repeated several times. Which group is able to draw the best map of the world?

step 4. Step 3 repeated several times. After 30 minutes each group stops drawing 

Step 5. Finally, the class needs to decide wich group has won this challenge. Every student receives 1 post-it which should be placed on the preffered map. Walk arpund the classroom and vote for your favorite world map, you cant vote for your own group.  The world map that recieves most post-its is the winner of this challenge

 

 

1.2 A Miniature Earth?

In 'International Awereness' we set out to study the world as a whole. This requires knowledge of both our planet and its ever growing population. Click on the following link https:/  /www.indexmundi.com/

Here you can see a enourmous number. What do you think this number is reffering to? Take another look. What do you think of the speed in which this number is increasing?

 

You guessed correctly, there is a enormous number of people living on planet earth. Moreover, the number of human beings is growing at an ever-increasing pace. But what if we pretend that there are only a 100 people on our planet? If we keep the current divisions in tact, what would this miniatue earth look like?  

This is the central question in the foll0wing excercise.

                                                                                                       

 

 

Oefening: Excercise 3. A Miniature Earth? Watch the video and try to answer the following questions.

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1.3 NEWSPAPER- GLOBAL ISSUES

For this assignment you are going to make a newspape about differen examples of globalization. First you are going do research online and clearly divide the tasks. Subsequently you are all going to carry out your own task and write your own article. The idea is that you and that you produce a nice and carefully made newspaper together.

Assignment

Your teacher has made a group 9 or 10 pupils. You will form the newspaper’s editorial staff with this group. All of you will be given 1 ) the task to write an article about globalization 2) and in addition a task within the editorial staff responsible for producing the final newspaper.

1) Article on 1 Example of Globalization

Write a small newspaper article  (1 A4, approximately  500 words). This article has to examine one specific example of globalization. In this article you explain the influence of your example on different parts of the world. You will also need to judge whether your ‘global issues’ is positive or negative development for mankind. Include pictures and maps in to finalize your article.

  • Pick one interesting example of globalization.Go online and find information on this topic  (don’t forget to mention the sources you use)
  • Form your own opinion on this topic and start writing your text. You need to use the essay format on the next page.

2) Task-Editorial Staff

Next to wrting your own article, every group member will be repsonsible for making the newspaper as realistic as possible. Think off all the extra elements that ussually appear in a news paper; commercials,puzzles, sports-page, horoscopes, weather-forcast etecetera. The more your   

Then your paper should have a name:

  • An appropriate name
  • A colophon (who worked on this paper, who did what?)

Time:

You and your group will be given two full lessons for this assignment. At the end of the last lesson the paper should be completed! This also means the lay-out and spelling. You will have to work hard. Your teacher is there to assist you when necessary.

Assessment:

Your teacher will pay attention to the following:

  • whether the information is correct and there is enough in the paper (has the research been carried out well?)
  • whether the paper is neatly organized (no spelling mistakes, beautiful lay-out, name and time appropriate?)

TIP: HOW TO WRITE A SMALL NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Step 1.Research & Analysis:  Start the writing process by researching your topic. Search the internet and make yourself an expert. Don’t forget to save the websites & sources you need for your article.

Step 2. Introduction: Now sit down and try to write a small introduction. The introduction should grab the reader's attention and set up the issue (’s) you want to adres. (<100 words). Do not forget to give your article a catchy title.

Step 3, Paragraphs: Each individual paragraph should be focused on a single example  of your topic. (< 300 words)

Step 4. Conclusion: Wrap up your essay and end with some memorable thoughts or some call to action. For this assignment you have to argue why your example is a good or bad development. (<100 words)

Step 5. Spelling & Sources:You will probably need to write and rewrite your articlee. Don’t worry, this will only improve the quality of your text. Before handing it in, check your text for typo’s, spelling and grammar mistakes.

Always name the websites, books and/or articles that you have used for information. Use footnotes to state your source

CHAPTER 2: WORLD WIDE ECONOMY

In the first chapter  you have discovered that the wealth on our planet is not divided fairly. To understand these big differences between richer (er) and poor(er) people, we need to acquire some basic knowledge on the modern economy. Economics is a subject that you will encounter next year, nevertheless you will familiarize yourself with the basic during this IA-course.

Before we dive into the principles of the global economy, it is wise to form you own opinion on the concepts of poverty and wealth. When do you consider someone to be rich? When are you definitely poor? How did these differences in wealth come into being? And how do people from other parts of our world perceive these concepts?

poor

When working with economy, you have to answer these questions by looking at objective facts. Furthermore, you also have to form your own subjective opinions on this information. The combination of hard facts and different opinions enables you to analyze the global economy  around us more critically.  

For example, watch this video on how the United Nations calculate the wealth of country. Watch the video and than make exercise 4.

 

Oefening: Exercise 4.Wealth or Poverty?

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2.1 Global economy: free trade and protectionism

When you want to buy a bread, you visit a baker. A new pair of jeans is easily bought in a clothing store and new smartphone’s is available in a telephone shop. You can buy virtually everything in the Netherlands. H However, most of our products are not made in our country. The fact that you can still easily buy these products is the consequence of global trade.

 

As you can see in exercise 5, most of your products are made abroad. They have reached you trough international trade. To understand the process of international trade, you first have to understand the concepts of import and export. To import means buying products or services from foreign countries. To export entails the selling of your own products and services to other countries in the world,

Furthermore, it is also very common for countries to import certain products in order to export them directly to other countries. This process is called re-export. For example, the Dutch economy has always been very reliant on re-export. Dutch companies import products from China to sell them directly to other neighboring countries within the European Union.