Michigan Curriculum Framework for Social Studies

Perspective: Economic
Benchmark: Select a particular good or service and describe the types of resources necessary to produce and distribute it.

The teacher asks, "How many of you rode in a car to school today?"  The students will respond.  Teacher asks, "Have you ever wondered how cars were
made?" Students respond.  Teacher asks, "How many of you have ever visited the Henry Ford Museum?"  Students will respond with hands.
Teacher says, "Henry Ford was the first person to invent the car.  He later designed the assembly line, which we still use today.  The assembly line is made up by different people
taking different car parts and putting them together to make a whole vehicle.  Today we are going to take part in our own assembly line.  Each of you will have an important part
in putting together a snack." Once we have all completed our own assembly line, you will have a better understanding of a division of labor.

Mode of Instruction: Presentation and role-play.

Materials Needed: Amount depends on class size

• Vanilla Wafers
• Red frosting
• White frosting
• Grasshopper cookies
• Napkins /and a knife

Hands on Activity:

Pretend we are at your favorite hamburger restaurant, and you are asked to put many hamburgers together for a large group that will be visiting.   Each of you will be
given a job assembling the hamburgers.  The jobs are: putting ketchup on the bottom bun, putting the burger on the bun and putting on the top bun.

1.)   Place jobs on pieces of paper and put into a hat.  Allow students to pick.
2.)   Place students in groups, making sure there is one student for each job.
3.)   Give the student their product and tell them what they will be doing with it.

• Student 1 places bottom bun onto napkin.
• Student 2 spreads ketchup onto the bottom bun.
• Student 3 places the hamburger on top of ketchup
• Student 4 spreads mayo on top bun and places it on for the finishing touches.

Ask students to summarize the lesson.

Possible answers.
During today's lesson we learned the different parts of an assembly line and what it takes to work with others to complete a common goal.We discussed the history of the assembly line, we talked about who invented the first assembly line, and then we created our own assembly line.)

Ask the following questions:

1. How did all the parts of your assembly line work together to make a whole?
2. What other jobs could be accomplished using an assembly line?
3. Which parts of today's project did you like best?
4. What is the benefit of an assembly line?

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