Economics and Geography Lessons

Bananas-From Manolo to Margie

MCPS Status of Book as of 4/4/96:
Not Evaluated

Title: Bananas-From Manolo to Margie, by George Ancona (Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1982)

Lesson Developed by Barbara S. Yingling

Literature Annotation: This story follows a crop of bananas from a plantation in Honduras to the breakfast table of a child in the United States. Along the way the bananas are handled by many workers and carried on different forms of transportation.

Grade Level: 3-5

Duration: 120 minutes

Economic Concepts: Interdependence, Division of Labor, Trade

Geography Themes: Location, Place, Movement

MSPAP Outcomes and Indicators:

Economic Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers in American society.

Indicator:

• Explain how the exchange of goods and services connects Maryland with the world.

Geography Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of geographic concepts and processes as needed to examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and distribution of human activities.

Indicator:

• Describe how transportation and communication networks link communities.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

• Use a world map to trace the route of the spread of banana production from Africa to Central America.
• Interpret climate maps to explain why Central America is an ideal place for growing bananas, but Baltimore is not.
• Use manipulatives to measure transportation costs on a world map.
• Make decisions about the type of transportation best suited to transporting products to market.

Vocabulary: bananaro, plantation, rhizome, longshoremen, gantries, conveyors, wholesale, retail

Materials:

• Book: Bananas-From Manolo to Margie 1 copy for each student
• Desk maps of the world
• Ball of yarn
• Atlas (rainfall and temperature maps of Africa and Central America)
• Centimeter rulers
• 18 - 5" x 8" cards with one worker title from the "List of Workers" printed on each card in large letters; on the back of each card, glue the job description for that worker title from the "List of Workers" located on the last page of the text of the lesson
• 12 cm of yarn, 1 piece for every 2 students
• "Transportation Costs" transparency
• "Comparing Ways of Transporting Food Products" transparency
• On-Line Resources
  • Bananas on the Net
  • Banana Producers of the World from Chiquita
  • The History of the Banana from Chiquita
  • The History of the Banana from Turbana
  • The Banana Journey from Turbana

Teacher Background:
Read the book to become familiar with the steps in growing bananas and in transporting bananas to the United States. Some of the Spanish words are explained at the back of the book.

Lesson Development:

Review/Motivation: Present this riddle to the class to introduce the lesson, allowing them to guess what is being described:

Clue 1:I am a food.

Clue 2: I am naturally sweet.

Clue 3: I grow upside down from the way you eat me

Clue 4: I come in a natural yellow wrapper.

"Do bananas grow in your yard? Could they? Why not? If we can't grow bananas where we live, how do we get them? Let's read to find our more."

Activities:

1. Tell the students that as you are reading the story, they will be identifying and sequencing all the workers who handle the bananas. Spread the cards with the workers titles on the chalk ledge so that students can read the titles.
   Have the students follow along as you read the book, Bananas- From Manolo to Margie, aloud. Whenever a new worker's title is mentioned, have a student move that worker's title card into correct sequence position. (See "List of Workers" for the correct order.)

2. Use the desk maps of the world to have the students trace the historical spread of bananas as a crop from Africa. (According to this book, the Portuguese discovered bananas in Africa and took the plants to the Canary Islands. From there, a Spanish missionary carried banana roots to the New World and planted them in the lands around the Caribbean Sea. The World Book Encyclopedia credits the origin of bananas to Asia.)

3. Have the children reread page 2 of the story where the climate of Honduras is described as tropical with hot, humid, rainy weather. Use the rainfall and temperature maps to identify the coloration for Honduras. Then ask the children to search for similar conditions in Africa. Ask:
   • Where in Africa might bananas have been found growing. (The bananas could grow in any location in Africa that has a tropical climate.)
   • If you were going to try to grow bananas somewhere else in the world, where else might you take the roots to start new plants? Use your maps to support your choices. (The students need to show evidence that the location they have selected has a tropical climate.)
   • Use the maps to explain why bananas aren't grown in Maryland. (The coloration on the rainfall and temperature maps for Maryland indicate that the climate in Maryland is not tropical, so bananas would not grow here. Explain to the students that banana plants cannot survive a frost.)

4. This activity will develop the concept of the interdependence of workers. Refer students to the cards of all the workers who are in the sequence chain of getting the bananas from the plantation to the market in the United States. Give one worker card at a time to each of 18 students, having each student read aloud the job description on the back of the card and then tape the card to the front of his or her shirt with masking tape. Seat these students in a circle on the floor in random order. The remaining students can stand or kneel outside of the circle. Give one student a ball of yarn, directing the child to state his/her job title and tell what he/she does in the banana production/distribution process. (Students outside the circle may help as needed.) Next, direct the student with the yarn ball to choose another student/worker and tell why that workers is needed in the process. The student with the yarn ball should hold the yarn and roll the yarn ball to the worker he/she selected. The worker receiving the ball should choose another worker and repeat the process, being careful to hold onto the yarn as the ball is rolled. As the process continues, more workers are holding the yarn until an "Interdependence Web" is formed to illustrate the economic importance of all the jobs in producing bananas and getting them to the grocery store. Help students conclude this if they have difficulty doing so. Ask:
   • Which worker is the most important?
   • What happens if all the plantation workers go on strike?
   • If the shipping industry refused to carry bananas, what effect would that have on the web of workers?
   • Choose one worker. Explain what would happen if that worker could not longer do his job.

5. Explain to the students that different kinds of transportation can be used to transport the bananas, and that each kind of transportation has advantages and disadvantages. Show "Comparing Ways of Transporting Food Products" on the overhead projector. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each type of transportation as a means of transporting bananas.

6. Tell the students that they will be acting as transportation advisors to a company that wants to transport bananas from Honduras to Baltimore. Distribute a desk map and a piece of yarn to pairs of students. Direct the students to place one end of the piece of yarn at the coast of Honduras and follow the route of a ship carrying bananas from Honduras to Baltimore by placing the yarn on the desk map. Have the students make a pencil mark on the yarn at the place where it reaches Baltimore. Direct the students to place the string next to a cm ruler to determine how many "units" (cm) long the route is. Place the chart of "Transportation Costs" on the overhead projector. Help students to calculate the cost of shipping the bananas by ship by multiplying the number of units times the unit cost of shipping by boat. Have the students repeat the process for railroad, truck, and airplane by placing the yarn on the desk maps to indicate the transportation route. Remind the students that the route will be different depending on the type of transportation. (For example, a train cannot travel over the ocean.) Help them to use the "Transportation Costs" worksheet to determine the cost of transporting bananas by each of the methods. Note: The costs figured with the yarn are not to be taken as real costs but as an example of the relative differences in the costs of the various transportation methods, for comparison purposes only. When the total cost for each of the 4 types of transportation has been calculated, facilitate a discussion to weigh the merits of using each of the kinds of transportation. Remind the students that transportation planners need to be concerned with other factors besides the cost of the transportation. Ask:
   • Why might it be important to know how many hours or days it would take to move the bananas? (Bananas and other fruit might spoil on a long trip if not refrigerated.)
   • Which types of transportation could take the bananas directly to the market? (Of the 4 types of transportation mentioned, only a truck can deliver directly to the market.)
   
   Refer to the "Comparing Ways of Transporting Food Products" and the "Transportation Costs" charts to help students draw conclusions about which transportation method or combination of methods is best for moving bananas to Baltimore. (There is no "right" answer. Encourage the students to speak in terms of advantages and disadvantages for each type of transportation.)

Conclusion/Closure:
Have the students locate the maritime reports in the newspapers. See if any fruit cargo is identified. If so, and the origin of the cargo is given, have the students calculate the cost of transporting it to Baltimore, using the yarn method. Based on the information they have, discuss which method of transportation is best in each case, considering cost in dollars and in time.

Thoughtful Application: Pose the following to the students:

Suppose you grow grapes, potatoes, and lettuce on a farm in California. When the products are ready, you want to send them to stores in some of the major cities of the United States, including Baltimore. You want to get your products to the market at the lowest possible cost before they spoil. Use the information on the "Comparing Ways of Transporting Food Products" chart and what you know about the fruits and vegetables to help you plan for transporting the crops. Write 3 questions that you must answer before you can make a final decision about the transportation.

Resources for Teacher Preparation:
The maritime report is published in The Sunpapers daily.

List of Workers:
Bananero - cares for banana plants
Protejedo - protects the plants
Cortero - cuts the fruit
Juntero - gathers the fruit
Driver - carries the fruit on the plantation
Washer - cleans the bananas
Weigher - weighs the bunches
Packer - wraps fruit and packs it for market
Loader - puts the fruit into boxcars
Engineer - takes the boxcars of fruit to the seaport to be shipped
Longshoreman - loads and unloads the ship (reefer)
Inspector - checks the temperature of the fruit
Captain - takes the bananas on the ship to foreign ports
Pilot - guides the ship into the foreign port
Truck driver - drives the truck to the warehouse
Forklift operator - lifts the boxes of bananas
Wholesale grocer - buys the bananas to sell to the retail grocers
Retail grocer - buys the bananas to sell to the public

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Last updated on March 10, 1997
Maintained by John L. Day

<jday@umd5.umd.edu>