Sock Exchange

Overview

The Why

Reinforced Values
Be Principled
Freedom
Opportunity
Responsibility
Sound Judgment
Win-Win

This activity is based on a Ted Talk where the speaker starts with a paperclip and eventually trades that paperclip for a house.  This is a great example of how voluntary trade creates wealth, in both the long and short term.

Trade is good for people because it allows them to find solutions to their problems. The Sock Exchange engages students in a trading simulation designed to illustrate a complex marketplace in which goods and services are traded. Students use this experience to investigate the conditions that encourage or discourage trade among individuals. Through several rounds of trade, students will see that the broader their access to trade, and the more choices they have for solutions to their problems, the greater their satisfaction.

This activity was developed and submitted by YE educators Hannah Womack and Kasey Winegar!

Intro

• Ask, “Why do people trade?”
  • Record some student responses on the screen or group chat and indicate that these responses are hypotheses.
  • Explain to the class that today’s activity will provide information and experience with which to test the hypotheses.
• Remind students that compliance is extremely important; therefore, they must listen closely to instructions.
• Announce to students that they are going to be “virtually” trading items that they own from their house.
• Tell the class that you will also be asking them to rate their satisfaction throughout the activity
  • Satisfaction ratings will be based on a scale of 1-5 (1 = worst, 5 = best)

Social and Emotional Skills

1. Students participating in this activity will experience opportunities to evaluate their satisfaction as it relates to trading and acquiring objects that they like or dislike. Granted, this will happen rather quickly, but nonetheless, in order to determine if they will personally trade an object or not requires the student to assess their personal emotions, thoughts, and values. Does the student feel “happy,” “excited,” “ill/sick,” etc? When they receive certain items? Does the student receive an item that they believe will be valuable to have at a different time, therefore increasing their likability in the classroom? These sorts of questions they will ask themselves are great examples of how the student, albeit quickly, will be practicing Self-Awareness strategies.
2. The next core competency students will be practicing are Relationship Skills. While external factors will influence who they trade with and how the students will also have an opportunity to prevent or accelerate trade as they manage their relationships with those in their trade group. They will be able to use various social engagement and communication strategies that will help them connect with some students. If they are not skilled at developing relationships, their trades will reveal this gap as the student may still rate their satisfaction as low.

Preparation

• Determine which platform you will use and how you will engage students in the activity.
• Watch the Ted Talk and review the activity instructions to ensure an understanding of how to execute the activity and debrief.
• Determine how you will engage students in the debrief following the activity.

Directions

• Ask students what they know about the subjective value and voluntary exchange. Activate and draw from any prior knowledge or activities where students have learned about both concepts.
  • Pro-Tip: If students are unfamiliar with the concepts, let them watch the TedTalk first, then review the concepts so they can anchor the meaning to Kyle and his trading.
• Show the TedTalk YouTube video or ask students to watch on their own and come back together after 15 minutes.
• Discuss the video and connect to:
  • How did they see the Foundational Values of Win-Win, Opportunity, and Freedom displayed through the video?
  • How did they see the concepts of subjective value and voluntary exchange demonstrated?
• Tell students they will be experiencing the concepts of subjective value and voluntary exchange through this activity. Ask students to look around their house for 2-4 items that they own but don’t really want or need. Allow 5 minutes for them to do so.
  • Pro-tip: You can adjust the number of items requested based on the size of the class.
• Have students share their items with the class.
• ROUND 1:
  • Use the “Trading Game Satisfaction Chart” to take a poll on the satisfaction of their items on a scale from 1-5 (1 = low, 5 = high). Record satisfaction results within the spreadsheet.
  • Ask students for suggestions as to what might make the satisfaction total increase. The answer you are looking for is “trade.”
• ROUND 2:
  • Share with students that they will be allowed to trade this round; however, trading will be limited.
    • To demonstrate to students the power of free and open trading, you want to slowly loosen the restrictions as you go through the rounds. You can do as many rounds as time permits.
    • Examples of restrictions:
      • Boys can only trade with boys; girls can only trade with girls
      • By color of shirt
      • By color of hair
      • By where they attended elementary school, middle school, etc.
      • Place them into breakout rooms where they can only trade within that room. You could increase the number of students per breakout room over several rounds.
  • Allow students to offer up an item for trade. Decide as a class the rule of law for making a “virtual” trade. One example would be for students to type out a simple trade agreement in the chat. You may also want to consider having students use pictures of the items so they could “virtually” take possession of them.
  • Pro tip: Let whether or not they actually trade their items, later on, be their own decision.
  • After allowing students to trade, revisit the satisfaction scale by asking students to rate their satisfaction level.
    • Did the virtual trade make students more satisfied than they were with their original items?
  • Ask the students if they think this is the happiest they can be in this game. What could make them happier?
    • Ideally, they would say that being able to trade with anyone could make them the happiest.
• Continue with additional rounds, slowly easing the restrictions. After each round ask for the students’ satisfaction ratings on a scale of 1-5.
• Conduct one final trading round but allow students to trade with anyone in the class. Do a final rating and record the tally.

Debrief

Students can complete the debrief in many ways. Some options include on paper, in a group setting via any virtual call platform, or by recording their feedback using EdTech tools and sharing with their classmates.

• Who did you end up trading with?
• Why do you think people were willing to trade with you?   
• What opportunities did you seek to make trades?   
• Describe how you used knowledge to make the most valuable trades. Did your knowledge change throughout the trading period?  If so, how?
• Was it possible to trade without some sort of cost?   
• Did anyone keep their item because they thought it was so cool and found high value in it? What does this say about the value of the item amongst everyone in our class?   
• Was everyone you asked motivated to trade? Why or why not? What motivates people to trade?
• Explain how satisfaction changed as a result of the trades you made or didn’t make, with others.   
• What Foundational Values did you use throughout the activity?

Deeper Dive:

Option 1: Teachers will send or distribute a simple and inexpensive item to all their students, such as a pencil or crazy socks (YE Swag!). Students will have a set amount of time, such as 2 days or until they have their next scheduled class meeting, to try and trade that item for whatever they can. Whether they do this through social media or just their own personal friends and family will need to be a decision and/or discussion between the teacher and the students. After that set amount of time, students will share back with the class (through a Zoom/Google Meet session) what they were able to trade their item for and talk about the process. This option would work for smaller classes or smaller towns where teachers could deliver or send these items to their students.   

Option 2: Students will have to find an item in their house that they all have, such as a paperclip or coffee mug. Students will have a set amount of time, such as 2 days or until they have their next scheduled class meeting, to try and trade that item for whatever they can. Whether they do this through social media or just their own personal friends and family will need to be a decision and/or discussion between the teacher and the students.  After that set amount of time, students will share back with the class what they were able to trade their item for and talk about the process. This option would work better for larger classes or urban areas where teachers might not be able to send items to their students and it makes more sense for students just to use their own items.