Taste from the Market

Taste from the Market
-(More ESD Activities)-

Are you still worried after read some of our games / experiments explanation? Well, don't worry - there are also some simple methods that we can practice - even without jumping and running...

This is an activity we can run in our school. It also involves sport, business, economic and social values.

I believe that environmental education (EE) is being a part of education for sustainable development (ESD), that's the reason that I always relate everything in these modules with social, economic, environment and humanity values.

STEP 1, GO TO TRADITIONAL MARKET:
- Divide children into small groups of 4-5 kids. Mention the job they have to do: as buyer, as treasurer (who responsible for the money), as picker, as writer (who responsible with the note).
- You can choose right time to go to the market. I think you can use time from sport, art, economic or biology lesson (well, from my opinion we will do / talk about it so why don't we go ^^ ? ).
- Make a list for things they want to buy (fruits / vegetables / spices, etc). Count and predict how much they will spend (2-3 USD) and then give the money to the treasurer. They will do bargain to get better price (and therefore they will learn about social values and economic at once).
- Tell them, they can choose to cooperate and buy with other groups, so they can get cheaper prize (and learn about team work).

STEP 2, DISCUSSION:
- Cut fruits into small pieces and give it for all children. For vegetables (carrot, cucumber, potato) you may cook it first. For spices (cinnamon, ginger, pepper, clove, chili) you can use sense of smell to identify items.
- Ask them about the taste, prize (which one is cheaper and why?)
- How a merchant determine the item prize? (mention transportation, loading effectiveness, tax, seed - fertilizer prize, etc).
- Discuss about exotic / local / endemic species (if they buy it). What is the difference between this species with others?

Tips:
- For smaller children you must limit the things they buy. 1 or 2 items are enough and you need more facilitator / teachers to accompany.
- Seek for exotic / local / endemic items. You can discuss more about biodiversity in your specific place.
- There are differences between buying items in local and hypermarket. Try to encourage children to shop in local market. Discuss the benefit, to give them deeper understanding about the social, economic and humanity value they brought when they spend their money for the local community.

Picture taken from http://indonesia-tomorrow.com