IR-1: Economic Activities Concept Map Reading to Learn Use the note-taking guide below while reading IR-2: Economic Activities. What you record in each section will be based on the text you read and your background knowledge. Division of Labor 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center Page 1 of 2 Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-1: Economic Activities Concept Map Reading to Learn Answer Key Use the note-taking guide below while reading IR-2: Economic Activities. What you record in each section will be based on the text you read and your background knowledge. PRIMARY Jobs that relate directly to natural resources (farming, drilling, fishing) Farmers Fishermen Miners Answers will vary. Division of Labor SECONDARY Jobs that take natural resources and convert them into something that human beings can consume Food manufacturing plants Oil refineries Automobile assembly plants Answers will vary. TERTIARY People who provide services Grocery store checker Answers will vary. Tax accountant QUATERNARY Jobs that gather, process, and use information and capital Teacher Doctor Finance Insurance Information services Answers will vary. 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center Page 2 of 2 Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-2: Economic Activities Economic Activities Economic geography explores the patterns of resource distribution and the economic policies humans create in order to analyze the patterns of development and industry on local, regional, and global scales. Have you ever heard the saying There are too many chefs in the kitchen? In any restaurant, there must be an owner; there usually is a general manager, shift managers, and employees. Some employees greet customers; some take orders while other employees cook the food. Still other employees clean off the tables and wash the dishes. There is a similar division of labor in most societies. There are farmers, manufacturers, technicians, programmers, teachers, doctors, secretaries, political leaders, and many other jobs. The term economic activities refers to the different types of jobs people do within society to earn a living. There are four types of activities: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. Activities that relate directly to natural resources belong in the primary sector. Farmers have a primary sector job because they plow soil, plant seeds, irrigate and fertilize soil, and then harvest crops. Farmers focus on growing a crop, not on getting the crop ready for humans to consume. Workers who extract resources like coal, Technology may be used in the primary sector to help humans extract natural resources from below Earth s surface. Rice farming in Southeast Asia is difficult manual labor. diamonds, or salt from mines within Earth and fishermen who harvest resources from water on its surface also are considered to have primary sector jobs. Secondary sector activities involve converting natural resources into a product that human beings can use or consume. People who work in food manufacturing plants, oil refineries, or automobile assembly plants are in the secondary sector. These jobs are commonly referred to as being in the industrial or manufacturing sector of an economy. What natural resources need to be available before workers on an assembly line can put a car together? 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center Page 1 of 3 Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-2: Economic Activities People who work in the tertiary sector provide services. This broad category includes checkers at the grocery store, tax accountants, teachers, and even doctors. Police, fire, and EMS workers also provide services, as do people who pick up trash from in front of your house. Employees at restaurants cook food that has been processed and serve it to customers. In most restaurants, the service provided is preparing and serving the food. How many secondary sector activities must be completed before a customer can be served food? Besides directing traffic, what other services do police officers provide? Activities in the quaternary sector involve gathering, creating, processing, and using information and capital (e.g., finance, insurance, and information services). A computer used for e-mail or social networking sites is very different from the sophisticated computers and software systems that financial companies like Citigroup or Berkshire Hathaway would use. Microsoft and IBM are companies that create software to manage an extreme amount of information. The doctor you visit when you have a fever provides a service Besides computers and medical care, to you, but a doctor who conducts research to what other examples could be viewed find a cure for cancer uses highly sophisticated as tertiary rather than quaternary, depending on how the service is used? computers and equipment and thus would be in the quaternary sector. In some cases, quaternary activities lead to the creation of new knowledge through research. Quaternary activities are not widely accessible to most people throughout the world because these activities require expensive technology that many countries cannot afford. Countries that are the most developed can afford to spend money on quaternary activities, such as infrastructure and technology for research and development. What evidence in this photo suggests that doctors are in the quaternary sector? 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center Page 2 of 3 Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-2: Economic Activities Think about what it takes to bring all of the ingredients together to make a chocolate chip cookie. Primary sector activities involve one farmer to grow the wheat for the flour, a second farmer to grow the sugar, and a third farmer to cultivate the cacao beans from which chocolate is made. Secondary sector activities involve the three food processing plants that convert all of those raw food sources into forms that humans can consume, as well as the bakery at which the ingredients would be combined and prepared. Tertiary activities involve the truck drivers who deliver the raw products to the bakery and the grocery store that sells the cookies. Quaternary activities involve food scientists working to develop a new, more healthful cookie. In countries that are more economically developed and have access to more advanced technology, it is possible to see farmers (primary sector) using advanced technological tools (quaternary sector) in the field. For instance, it is common to see farmers in the United States with GPS computers on their tractors that show the farmer a section of their farm that is infested by insects. Farmers of today rely on technological tools to help them make decisions about when to plant crops and which types to plant. While functional, antique farm equipment such as this hay baler would not be the most time-efficient tool to use when producing large quantities of hay. 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center Page 3 of 3 Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-3: Summarization Rubric 4 The student strongly identifies the diversity of economic activities and provides ample supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated economy. 3 The student identifies the diversity of economic activities and provides some supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated economy. 2 The student somewhat identifies the diversity of economic activities and provides little supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated economy. 1 The student does not identify the diversity of economic activities and provides no supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated economy. 0 The student does not provide enough information to determine comprehension. 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center Geography by Design, Volume 2