Week 26 · Term Three · Trade routes, advantage and ledgers
Work out how many days the Suez Canal saved, prove with Ricardo’s cloth and wine why trade helps even the country that’s better at everything, follow the Silk Road’s goods, ideas and plague, balance a Venetian ledger, and write an honest trade analysis.
Monday turns a canal’s shortcut into days at sea. Tuesday finds each country’s comparative advantage. Wednesday traces what the Silk Road carried besides goods. Thursday keeps a double-entry ledger that catches its own mistakes. Friday weighs a town’s trade decision honestly.
25 minutes
Geography and rates · A shortcut through the desert
Read a route on a map, and use distance = speed × time to work out how much time a shortcut saves.
Make
A route card
Analysis handoff: The route card is filed. Tomorrow two countries discover that trading helps even the one that is better at everything.
25 minutes
Economics · Why trade helps both sides
Compare costs to find each country's comparative advantage, and show with arithmetic that specializing and trading makes more for everyone.
Make
An advantage table
Analysis handoff: The advantage table is filed. Tomorrow you follow the Silk Road, where trade carried more than goods.
25 minutes
History and geography · Trade carries ideas and germs
Explain how trade routes spread goods, ideas and disease, and how geography shaped where those routes ran.
Make
A route map
Analysis handoff: The route map is filed. Tomorrow a Venetian ledger shows how merchants kept honest records.
25 minutes
Math and history · Every trade written twice
Record trades in two columns, check that they balance, and use a mismatch to find a missing entry.
Make
A ledger
Analysis handoff: The ledger is filed. Tomorrow you write an honest analysis of a trade decision.
30 minutes
Writing · An honest trade analysis
Write an argument that weighs the gains and costs of a trade decision, names who wins and who loses, and is honest about what's unknown.
Make
A trade analysis
Analysis handoff: The trade analysis is filed. Your week's report is ready for the portfolio.
The analysis uses only work entered here. It is a family record of this week’s work, not a grade, an attendance record, or proof of mastery.
