Evaluation    Conclusion    Teacher Page

Adam Smith said, “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of production and the interest of the producer ought to be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.”

Task
The US Departments of Commerce and Justice have received reports from labor groups, consumers, and various industries concerning the extent to which the aforementioned companies trade and compete in the marketplace both in the United States and abroad.Your task is to investigate the accusations made against the company assigned to your group, identify the issues, examine various perspectives involved, and report your findings in the format explained below.

Process
The roles and responsibilities of the group members are listed below. Each group member should assume the role and research the issues from the perspective of one of the participants listed.The research should be presented in two forms: an individual essay using the decision making model and a group power point presentation using documents, photographs, graphs, and statistical data.
The power point presentation should contain a minimum of ten content slides, plus one introductory slide and one bibliography slide.
 

Meeting			Roles
Symposium on the ramifications of using gene altered seeds(Monsanto)	farmer using new gene altered seeds	CEO of chemical corporation	Undersecretary of US Department of Agriculture	Chairman of the Board of a major food company	Foreign ambassador of of US trade partner
Congressional Hearing on scandal (Enron)	Chairperson of Senate Investigation Committee	CEO of Accounting Firm involved(Enron)	Attorney for Corporation	A Representative of  the Employees or the Labor Union leader	A Representative for the Stockholders
International Trade Conference regarding environmental concerns for drilling for oil(Exxon Mobile)	CEO of Corporation	Local leader of town near drilling	Foreign Minister of Country (other than the USA) affected by drilling	CEO of Multinational Corporation that is closest competitor to corporation	Leader of an International Trade Organization
Arbitration Meeting (Brown and Williamson) (RJ Reynolds)	Federal judge	Corporate Attorney	Attorney for the Justice Department	Leader of Consumer Advocate Organization	Attorney for competitor
Arbitration Meeting prior toAnti-trust Case(Microsoft)	Federal judge	Corporate Attorney for Microsoft	Head of  the Federal Trade Commision	Attorney for Consumer Advocate Group	Attorney for Competitor

Resources
The following resoures may be used to compete your webquest:

http://www.cnnfn.com	http://www.usdoj.gov
http://www.washingtonpost.com	http://www.ftc.org
http://dailynews.yahoo.com	http://www.antitrust.org
http://www.nytimes.com	http://www.law.house.gov
http:/www.economist.com http://www.econedlink.org	http://www.forbes.com web pages of companies

NOTE:(Change made on 2/19/02) Click on the link for additional resources.
You may use other reputable web sites or non-electronic resources. Information should be gathered fom multiple electronic and non-electronic sources and cited properly. All resources must receive prior approval from the teacher.

Evaluation
Click on the link below to access the rubric that will be used to evaluate the completed tasks: rubric for economic investigation

Conclusion
The goal of the webquest is to analyze several economic principles and determine the relationship that exists in the market economy among producers, consumers, the federal government and the foreign market. Students will be exposed to a variety of resources and perspectives on the issues involved in the economic investigation. Students will evaluate the information gathered and present the finished product of their investigation to the class.

Teacher Page
The South Carolina Social Studies Standards for Economics have been used in this webquest. http://www.myscschools.com