Suggested Activities for Students 

Make an informal survey of objects in your home to determine where they were made. See what items are made where. OR select a meal and list all the components of that meal.

Where does each component come from? OR take a walk down the food aisle of a local supermarket. Look at the labels and find out the geographic origin of each product on the shelves. Share your findings with the class. What conclusions can you draw?

Select a group you are a part of. Ask each member to share their roots: the ethnic origins of their family members.

Identify the routes followed by the movements of these family members/ancestors on a world map, using push pins or other markers to show the composite roots. Share your findings with the class. What observations can be made? What kind of economic goods tend to follow the movement of a group of people to a new area? Why? Cite local examples.

Research the events of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.

What is the World Trade Organization? Which countries are members? What is its function? How have decisions been made? What and why were there protestors at the meeting in Seattle? What were some of the reasons and issues behind the protests? Select several of the countries which sent representatives. Research to find out the positions the countries took on the various issues

Choose a company which has been the target of protest.

Research to find out more about the company, the nature and location of its operations, its stock performance, the nature of the arguments used by protestors, the response offered by the company, the effects of the protest on the operations of the company and on the value of the stock. Check the web page of the Global Compact to see if the company has signed the compact.

Using such resources as Forbes Magazine or The Economist or their websites, compile a list of the world's largest corporations and a list of their total sales.

Using the resources of the World Bank, find a list of the gross product of the countries of the world in rank order. Compare the two lists and compile a list of the 100 wealthiest entities in the world. Of these top100, how many are countries and how many are corporations? Share your observations with the class. From the list of 100 you compile, which names are most familiar to you and members of the class. Research more about recent mergers among large corporations. What effect have these mergers had on the wealth of these new corporate entities.

Choose a company that makes a product that you have at home.

Find out more about the company, the location of its headquarters and other important locations, the product/s it makes, its history and growth. Check their website to see if they have a corporate code of conduct. Does it explicitly protect the environment, workers’ right and human rights? Write to the company expressing your views about its operations, or your opinion about the product you have.

Check out the website of a non-governmental organization, such as Corporate Watch or the Institute for Policy Studies.

What kind of issues do they study? Which corporations do they watch? Why? Is their criticism fair?

Plan a globalization forum for your school.

Invite members of the business, trade, human rights, environmental and labor organizations to participate and share their insights into the topic. Speakers could be asked to offer suggestions for activities students might undertake. Listen to all views and decide on the ones which make the most sense to you. Interested students may wish to plan follow up activities based on suggestions the speakers might propose.

Track the stock market reports on the financial pages of a major newspaper over several weeks.

See how the progress on one world stock market affects others. Share the results with the class. What conclusions can you draw?