By: Michele Harris, Honors Economics Teacher
Lancaster High School, Lancaster, CA

How it all Began: From Training to the Classroom
It began with an email warning teachers, administrators, and security personnel that students would be coming to school on April 14th in unusual attire. Zulu warriors? Japanese Geishas?  Muslim women in headscarves? Faces might be painted, and students might be chanting the names of nations other than the U.S.A. The students’ exuberant participation in our school’s first International Economic Mini Summit soon had our 3,200-student campus enthralled.

I remember receiving the invitation to the two-day teacher training. It sounded like a nice break from my routine. IES sounded interesting and I soon received my country assignment for the training simulation:  India. Before I knew what hit me, I was scouring the Internet and being introduced to friends of friends who were willing to lend me a sari, jewelry, and traditional Hindu ornaments for my table display. I won first place for my costume!  I was invigorated!  When I returned to the classroom, I was bubbling over with enthusiasm and soon the students began asking when they would get to participate. As boxes from the Federal Reserve full of Player’s Guides began to arrive, the anticipation was palpable.

The Plan: Getting it All Together
My plan was simple. Our Mini Summit would be held in late April, before Advanced Placement testing began. I submitted the requisite forms to reserve the library, and set out to implement the lesson plans. The first challenge I encountered was the school schedule itself. The date of the Mini Summit conflicted with standardized testing schedules. After numerous rescheduling attempts, the event date was finally confirmed. Unfortunately, the new date called for a drastic acceleration of the lesson plans, making for somewhat frantic pacing. However, the students were understanding and patient and willing to do whatever was necessary to make this a successful event. They asked their parents to volunteer and helped each other with costume ideas. The cooperation this event fostered was unbelievable.

Michele Harris, Lancaster High School,
with two of her IES students

Unexpected Competitiveness! Diving into the Lessons
But the Summit also unleashed some incredible competitiveness. This became apparent as we approached the sixth lesson: “Barriers to Trade: Who Really Pays?”  Already, student discussions were turning to the use of embargos and collusion!  By the time the teams were ready to make their initial trade issue presentations, the battle lines were clearly drawn.

In actuality, the competitiveness began very early in the program, specifically during Lesson One, which familiarizes students with their assigned country. Because instructional supplies are very limited, I used my whiteboards to have students present their country facts (instead of using butcher paper). I have a 16 foot wide white board that I set up with columns, and provided the students with different color white board markers to write in their data. The discussion that followed was very powerful, and students immediately mastered the concept of per capita GDP and how it affects the economic power of their country.

Because I felt that students needed an even deeper grasp of their nation, I required each team to make a brief presentation (less than five minutes) on their country to the class. Each team presented their flag, a map, some interesting historical facts about their country (such as colonial history), and, the finishing touch, their national anthem. This activity developed into a “top this” competition, with teams learning the lyrics and actually singing their country’s anthem, often in another language!  But this activity also assisted students understanding of the powerful role of nationalism in international trade. As a side benefit, almost all of the students earned a perfect score on the Flag Quiz preceding the Summit. I attribute this to the early integration of cultural literacy, through this expanded activity in Lesson One. Students really enjoyed this particular unit and many commented that they had never realized that colonies of Great Britain often adopted national anthems that sounded like “God Save the Queen”!

One of the most powerful educational moments that occurred during this unit was when the team for Vietnam presented their information, only to learn from one of their own classmates that refugees from Vietnam do not acknowledge the flag the students were using, and why that was the case. What an amazing teachable moment! 

The Homestretch: Final Summit Logistics
The major logistical challenges for me were two-fold. First, our school could not participate in the Regional Summit because it was scheduled to coincide with our graduation; and our remote location, in the far northeastern corner of Los Angeles County, makes travel difficult. I initially thought I would teach the IES curriculum to all of my Economics classes in spring semester, and have a Mini Summit in each class. It certainly looked like a reasonable goal in November!  As the time approached, I decided to limit the participation to my two Honors Economics classes and to hold one Mini Summit in which both classes would participate. With the cooperation of my colleagues, I was able to hold the event during school hours, and participating students were released from their regular classes for the duration of the Summit. Our school has block scheduling (with two hour blocks), so by making some alterations to the Summit format, I was able to successfully complete it during the designated block.

First, students were permitted to drop off their table displays in the library before school. Second, students came to school in costume, so no time was lost in costume-changing. Third, students came to the library to set up their displays during their break time, and they were ready to begin the Summit when the bell rang for the beginning of the block. Further, we held the Flag Quiz, the Scoremaster Quiz, and the preliminary voting for the trade issue during the preceding class meeting. For the trade issue, students voted for two in each block, and at the Summit the winning four teams presented to the entire conference. The winning trade issue was presented by Iran, requesting the termination of trade sanctions and the resumption of normal trade relations.

Another modification to our Summit was the decision not to impose tariffs. This decision was made solely for convenience, and to ease the stress on my volunteer Bankers and Scorekeepers.   I did not allow adequate time for training the volunteers, and that left me with a significant burden. But since most of the adults who participated or observed have volunteered for next year, my hope is to impose tariffs next year to give the students a fuller appreciation of the challenges of trade outside of their alliances. For this simulation, the students were limited to a total of two trade alliances; no more than one partner in each alliance could be from the same class. The limitation on trade alliances resulted in a great deal of collaboration outside of class, sometimes to the dismay of the AP Physics teacher!

In the Aftermath…Looking Forward to Next Year!
One month after the Mini Summit was Senior Recognition Night; with seniors receiving scholarships and academic awards. But for me, the highlight of the night was when I announced awards for students who were receiving outstanding academic achievement honors and identified them by their country. The theater erupted with cheers for the country, followed by cheers from competing countries; it was incredible. When the students turned out this week for graduation practice, many of them were wearing hats that identified them by their Summit country.

Would I undertake this project again? Absolutely. Not only did this program positively impact the sixty-six students who actively participated in the event, but it had a rippling effect through the entire class of over six hundred seniors. My seniors gained a depth of knowledge about twenty-two countries they knew little about, and so did their friends and families. As an educator, it does not get much better than that.