4 - A World of Difference - Fairtrade Board Game

In this lesson students create a board game to show how Fairtrade has had an impact on five different producer countries.

Curriculum Links
This lesson plan links with Curriculum aims in Geography and Citizenship. 

Learning Objective
To analyse and evaluate evidence of how Fairtrade has had an impact on 5 countries, drawing and justifying your conclusions

Learning Outcome
To understand the concept and benefits of Fairtrade

Resources Needed
Art materials. 

Starter
In groups students write the letters of the alphabet down the side of a page and then think of different words or phrases to do with Fairtrade/trade justice to do with each. The first group that completes the sheet or gets the most within an allotted time period, wins. 

Main Activity
Elicit a definition for Fairtrade and ask for examples of the ways in which Fairtrade can make a difference in the lives of producers.

Split the class into at least 5 groups. Each group is assigned a country: India, Bolivia, Chile, South Africa or Malawi.

1. Present the groups with copies of their country profile and ask them to identify what they consider to be 5 important facts or statistics about the country, explaining why they’ve chosen them.

As the groups feed back to the class, students make notes on their worksheet.

2. Next, present the groups with copies of their producer group profile. Explain that each group will 'become' the producer group they have been assigned and will be put in the hot seat to answer questions from the rest of the class about their work.

Ask groups to write down 3-4 questions they want to ask about the other producer groups. 
E.g. What do you farm? What part of _____ do you work in? How many people do you work with? What sort of help do you give to farmers and the community?

Groups take it in turns in the hot seat, answering questions. Students make notes on their worksheet.

3. Distribute the relevant producer stories to the groups. Students make a list of the ways in which the producers and the communities have benefitted from Fairtrade. They then pick 2-3 examples of producers and present their stories to the class. This could be done as a simple presentation or in the format of a news report/interview or taking on the character of a producer.

As each group presents their producer stories, students make notes on their worksheet.

4. Put the students into different groups, ensuring that there are 'representatives' from each country in the group. Using their completed worksheets challenge the students to develop a board game which explores Fairtrade in the 5 countries they have been looking at including information about
• Why Fairtrade is needed 
• The benefits of Fairtrade

You may wish to decide on a success criteria with your class. Groups swap their games and play them.

Plenary
Set the discussion question for the class: Is Fairtrade important? Students spend two minutes discussing in pairs. They then join with another pair and discuss the question for another two minutes before joining with another 4 students and discussing. This process can be continued until you have a brief full class debate on the subject.