What’s the Best Way to Spend State Money?

By John Riemenschneider (jriemenschneider@hpschools.org)

9^th Grade Social Studies Teacher at Holland Patent High School

INTRODUCTION:

The year is 1433 and you are a special economic advisor to the Emperor of the Ming dynasty in China. For 28 years now your country has sent out huge expeditions throughout the Indian Ocean for several different reasons. The Emperor has asked you to analyze if these sailing expeditions have been profitable to China and if they should continue.

TASK:

1. Complete web quest graphic organizer while completing process

2. Write a two-page recommendation to the Emperor on if he should continue with the expeditions or not. Discuss the problem, evidence and causes. Discuss the option of continuing the expeditions and why it would be good for China or discuss why they should stop and how the money could be spent on other government policies/problems.

PROCESS: (Click here to print Graphic Organizer)

You will use a four step process called the American History Public Policy Analyst (AHPPA). This is very similar to Science class. You will:

1. Identify the Problem – What is the problem/issue?

2. Gather the Evidence – How do we know about this?

3. Determine the Causes – Why is this problem happening?

4. Evaluate the Policy – What did the government do? Did the results outweigh the costs? Were there alternatives?

Step 1 - Identify the Problem

Explore the situation of China in 1433. What was going on in and around China where the money from the expeditions could have been used more efficiently? Was there any social reasons to continue/suspend the expeditions?

· History of Ming Dynasty

· Confucian Philosophy

Step 2 - Gather the evidence of the Problem

Now that you have identified the problem, what was the validity (truth) of it? Did it seem like China was spending too much money on these expeditions without getting a good return on their investment?

· Cost of Ships to be build

· Others costs for the fleet

Step 3 - Determine the Causes

Go through and try to determine why you think China should not continue. Give at least two reasons why they should stop the expeditions.

· Rule of Yongle: Ming Emperor

Step 4- Evaluate the Policy

The Emperors of China decided to stop the treasure ship expeditions. What were the effects of this decision in terms of costs and benefits? The costs would include both economic and social issues and the benefits would be related to the achievement of the objective. Consider how these two relate. Here are some scenarios:

- Benefits obtained at reasonable cost. (Did China get what they want within a reasonable cost of money?)

- Benefits obtained at too high of a cost. (Did China get what they want at too high a cost of money ?)

- Benefits not obtained (Did China not get what they wanted?)

- Benefits not obtained and costs were still too high (Did China not get what they want AND the cost of money was too high?)

Also you need to brainstorm alternatives stopping the voyages. What could have the government done differently? What could have happened if the voyages continued? Come up with at least two alternatives to stopping the voyages all together .

· Evidence of Chinese discovery of New World

Evaluation

Below is a rubric that I will use to grade your completed graphic organizer. Consult it first to determine the various criteria:

	4	3	2	1	Total
Time on Task	Was totally focused and on task throughout project	Was mostly focused and on task during project	Was distracted easily, had a hard time finishing during class time.	Was not on task at all, had to be refocused by teacher constantly	_____/4
Completed Graphic Organizer	Organizer was completely filled out with lots of details	Organizer was mostly filled out.	Organizer was missing some points.	Organizer was unclear, not fully filled out.	_____/4
Paper-Analysis	Paper fully answers task given	Paper mostly answers task given	Paper somewhat answers task given	Paper does not answers task, is unfocused	____/4
Paper- Organization	Paper is fully organized and flows easily	Paper is somewhat organized but can still be easily followed	Paper is hard to follow and does not stay on topic	Paper is not organized with no paragraphs	____/4
Paper – Spelling & Grammar	There is not spelling or grammar mistakes	There are a few mistakes, but does not take away from the paper	There are numerous mistakes and it makes it hard to follow	There are many mistakes and paper is impossible to follow	____/4

Total_____/20

Conclusion

This web quest was designed to determine the conditions and motives for stopping these great expeditions that the Chinese government funded for almost 30 years and to have students stop and think both why the government decided to stop these and what could have happened if they did not stop them. This will relate to the later unit while discussing the European domination of both the Indian Ocean trading network and of the New World.

Standards

The following state standards were considered and covered in the creation of this web quest.

English Language Arts

§ Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

§ Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation
Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a
variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Social Studies

§ Standard 2: World History
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate
their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.