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LESSON:
ANT CITIES
Lesson
Summary
This book explains how ants work together to
survive in their ant cities. The book describes the different tasks
that each ant does in the ant city. Your students will learn many
interesting facts about ants, including how to make a simple “ant farm!”
Concept: Interdependence
Definition: Interdependence occurs when
people or countries depend on someone else to provide the goods and
services they consume.
Comprehension Questions:
In economics,
what does it mean to be interdependent?
People are interdependent when
they depend on each other to provide the goods and services they
consume.
In what
way does an ant city illustrate interdependence?
The ants in an ant
city specialize in their jobs. In doing so, they all depend on each
other for survival.
What are
some of the special jobs/tasks done by the bees?
Queen – lays eggs;
Workers – do all the work in the ant city and also fight to protect the
nest; New Queens – have wings to fly away and start new ant cities; Males
– fly away with new queens to mate, then die.
What would
happen if different types of ants didn’t do their special
job(s)?
The ants could not survive unless they worked
together. All the ants have a special job that helps ensure the
survival of the ant city.
What are
some of the special jobs in your city or community that people
do?
Teachers, plumbers, TV repair people, doctors, factory workers,
police officers, store owners, etc. There are countless
examples.
How do these
people in your community depend on one another?
The people in the
community specialize in the jobs they do. Then, they exchange the
money they earn and pay others for the goods and services they
provide. All of us are interconnected/interdependent in that we rely
on others to provide most of the goods and services we consume.
Is it good
to be interdependent?
Specializing in production and then
exchanging/trading to get the goods and services one wants makes
production more efficient, providing society with more goods and
services. Generally, this is good for everyone. However,
sometimes interdependence can be troublesome. For example, our
country relies heavily on oil produced from other countries. In most
cases, that is not a problem, but when there is political instability,
prices may rise dramatically and our dependence becomes very
costly.
Other
Concepts: Specialization,
Trade and Money (Exchange) | 
