What Did Humans Invent Money for?
SOCIAL STUDIES
Get curious
7 min
Video/ Slide show (7 min)
Watch a video about a new method of making payments by using cell phones.
Ask your students the following question:
What have cell phones become for the inhabitants of the Philippines?
What other legal tenders do you know?
Did people always have money at their disposal?
How can you pay for the goods you need in a different way?
What have cell phones become for the inhabitants of the Philippines?
What other legal tenders do you know?
Did people always have money at their disposal?
How can you pay for the goods you need in a different way?
Get going
6 min
Experiment (6 min)
By impersonating hunters and farmers, the students participate in barter.
This exercise presents barter in its simplest form. The students exchange chips that symbolize goods. In this case, supply meets demand – each group needs a good that the other group has at their disposal.
8 min
Experiment (8 min)
The students are divided into groups – gatherers, farmers, blacksmiths, miners and hunters – and continue the exchange of goods.
This task leads the groups to a situation in which no further exchange is possible and it is necessary to introduce money.
9 min
Video/ Slide show (9 min)
The students learn about the history of money.
Watch the video:
Ask your students the following question:
What problems did people encounter while bartering?
Did any of the payment methods presented in the video surprise you in particular?
What have people started to use in other parts of the world?
Why have people started to produce coins? What did they look like in the past?
How were the first bills created?
What is money?
What other legal tenders can we encounter in today’s world?
What is a payment card? What do people use it for? How does it operate?
Summarize your students’ statements.
What problems did people encounter while bartering?
Did any of the payment methods presented in the video surprise you in particular?
What have people started to use in other parts of the world?
Why have people started to produce coins? What did they look like in the past?
How were the first bills created?
What is money?
What other legal tenders can we encounter in today’s world?
What is a payment card? What do people use it for? How does it operate?
Summarize your students’ statements.
Get practicing
Writing
The students arrange chronologically the solutions invented throughout history that enabled people to purchase goods.
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