This lesson enables students to gain a practical understanding of how division of labor helped small cottage industries flourish into larger entities during the Industrial Revolution. Divide your students into equal-size groups and provide them with the materials required to make, for example, a small model car. Give the students enough material to make as many model car as possible in 15 minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, see which groups made the most and the highest-quality model cars. Students see that the most successful group is the one that is able to prioritize tasks and divide the labor most effectively.
A longer activity can help students understand economic and financial issues at a local level. Divide your students into two groups; one of these groups will act as the city council, the others as development groups presenting their proposed projects to the city. Tell the students playing the part of the developers that they have beginning capital of $100,000. Give the groups between three and five days to come to a conclusion on what they will present to the other groups. The group acting as the city council should consider what the community needs, what it will cost, how it will affect the community, and what is the potential opposition. The developer group needs to devise a presentation outlining what permits they will seek and what additional capital they need, as well as how their plan would benefit the city.
This activity demonstrates to students that not all global currencies are alike, nor are all commodities equally valuable in each country. Get your students to bring something to school that has a price on it -- for example, a page from a store catalogue -- and then give the students a selection of global currencies to choose from. Using the Internet, get your students to convert their items' prices into their chosen currency and feed the results back to the rest of the class. The pupils will notice the vastly different values of global currencies; explain to them the factors that cause this disparity, including gold reserves, choice of denomination and intentional devaluation.
Asking your students to think about what constitutes currency will make them think about what money is. Have your students come up with a list of important criteria for what is currency, and get them to report on these criteria to the class. The students should come up with ideas ranging from the practical -- can fit in a pocket, waterproof -- to the fundamental but less obvious, such as limiting supply to protect value and ensuring that users trust in the currency's value.