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Global Trade: Follow Goods Around the World with Connie

Global Trade: Follow Goods Around the World with Connie

Learn how global trade works: imports, exports, jobs and fair trade. Steer a container ship from China to Felixstowe and sort goods with Connie.

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What you'll learn

  • The difference between goods and services, and what barter is
  • Primary, secondary and tertiary economic activity, with real job examples
  • What imports and exports are, and why countries trade
  • How a supply chain moves products from factory to shop
  • Why most traded goods travel by container ship through ports
  • How the Fairtrade Minimum Price and Premium help farmers

Chapter by chapter

  1. What trade is: buying and selling goods and services Free to try

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  2. Economic activity: primary, secondary and tertiary jobs

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  3. Imports and exports: why countries trade and who the UK trades with

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  4. Supply chains: how products travel from factories to our shops

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  5. Fair trade: fair prices for farmers and workers

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  6. World Trader Challenge: trade, jobs, imports, supply chains and fair trade (10 questions)

What the chapters cover in the national curriculum in England:

  1. Years 3–6 geography: Describe and understand key aspects of human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water

About this adventure

Trade Around the World is an interactive geography game that teaches children aged 9–11 how global trade works: how countries make, buy and sell goods and services, and how products from around the world reach our shops. It matches the KS2 geography topic of economic activity and trade links, and Connie the shipping container reads every step aloud.

Players swap goods in a market and sort jobs into primary (taking raw materials from nature), secondary (making things) and tertiary (services). They drag goods onto import and export arrows, load a container ship with a crane and put a supply chain in order, from factory to port to shop.

Finally, they meet Ama, a cocoa farmer in Ghana, and see how the Fairtrade Minimum Price and Premium give farmers a fairer deal.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between imports and exports?

Imports are goods or services brought into a country from abroad, and exports are goods or services sent out to be sold in other countries. For example, the UK imports bananas from hot countries and exports things like Scotch whisky and medicines.

How do products made in other countries get to UK shops?

Most products travel in shipping containers on huge ships, which carry over 80% of the world's traded goods by volume. They are unloaded at ports such as Felixstowe, the UK's busiest container port, then taken by lorry or train to warehouses and shops.

What is Fairtrade, in simple words?

Fairtrade is a way of trading that makes sure farmers and workers get a fairer deal. They are paid at least a Minimum Price even when prices fall, plus extra Premium money that the community decides how to spend, such as on schools or wells.

What age is the Trade Around the World game for?

It is designed for children aged 9 to 11 and is pitched mainly at Year 6, matching the KS2 geography topic of economic activity and trade links. Every line is read aloud with captions, so less confident readers can follow along.

What does the trade game include and how long does it take?

The game has an optional warm-up, five chapters with hands-on activities and quick checks, and a 10-question World Trader Challenge with typed answers. Playing everything takes about 50 minutes, and children can start any chapter from the map.

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