UNIT
8: LESSON 2
EXPORT MATH!
SUBJECT:
Math
OBJECTIVE:
Students will work with several graphs and pie charts to learn
about world corn production and exports. They will also learn to convert
bushels to tons, and U.S. tons to metric tons.
EVALUATION:
Students will understand how important foreign trade is to corn farmers
in the United States.
BACKGROUND FOR
TEACHERS:
One of every five
rows of corn grown in the U.S. is exported overseas. The U.S. is the
world's largest producer of corn (42 percent), the world's largest exporter
of corn (70 percent), and is also the world's largest consumer of corn.
STUDENT ACTIVITIES:
1. Ask students
to read the story, Claire Has a Dream, paying
close attention to her mom's explanation that 18 percent of the corn
raised in the United States is sent to other countries. See if they
can remember all the different kinds of transportation used to move
corn from the field to the customer! (combine, truck, barge, train,
ship.) Look up the word "export" in the dictionary.
2. Younger students
can complete tworksheet 1. Older students can complete the math problems,
and answer the extra credit questions on worksheets 2, 3, 4, & 5.
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Ask older students
to study all three charts (production, export, and consumption)
and to write at least five observations they make while comparing
the three. (For example: The U.S. is the top producer, exporter,
AND consumer of corn.Egypt is a large consumer of corn, but does
not produce or export much.China produces 4881.7 million bushels
and consumer 4615.9, so only has 265.8 million bushels to sell.)
3.Try to make every
country real for the students and not just a name or number on these
graphs. If they haven't completed Lesson 1, find the countries on maps
or a globe. Ask how the students think the corn will be used in each
country, and why they think that country needs to import corn from the
U.S.
