The document provides instructions for an assignment to research international trade data using an online tool. It gives examples of the author's exploration of Peru and China's trade relationships. Students are asked to pick a country and research its imports/exports over time, trading partners, and interesting trade relationships to analyze in a short report. The author explores China's trade of animal products with Peru and human hair globally to demonstrate how the tool can be used to discover trade patterns and stories.

1. So for this assignment the goal for you is to
do some research…

2. You will use this website to do you
research.
http://atlas.media.mit.edu/
I will give you an example of what you can
do with the website.

3. When you go to the website it will look like this.

4. When you go to the website it will look like this.
When you click here it will take you to a random country.
I ended
on Peru

5. What comes up will be something like this:

6. I clicked here to see what Peru’s main export was

7. I can see Peru’s main export is copper ore!
I wonder who Peru mostly exports too?
Scroll down the page to see more

8. Interesting… I see that the U.S and China is who Peru exports to
the most.
I wonder what are the things that Peru export most
to China?
Click on China to find out

9. This second window will show up, I clicked what
does China import from Peru.

10. So for China is mostly copper
ore and Animal meal?
So who else buys this animal meal from Peru
anyway?
Animal meal sounds strange… Click on the animal pellets to find out

11. Again, another window will open up for
you to find the question you are asking

12. OK, I see that China buys almost 50% of
Peru’s total exports of Animal Pellets.
Which from the previous knowledge is only
about 10% of China’s total import from Peru.
So where does China get most
it’s imports of Animal Pellets
from?

13. Click on China to find the question

14. Ok, so almost 50% of all of China’s import
of Animal Pellets comes from Peru.
Which from the previous knowledge is only
about 10% of China’s total import from Peru.
And is about 50% all the total
exports of Peru’s Animal
Pellets.

15. As you can see there are several different
ways to look at the same data and it can
get pretty complicated.

16. Explore the website. There are many more things to figure out and
different graphs and ways to explore the data.
For another example...
I searched by
products…

17. It randomly came up with human hair!
India, Hong Kong and China are the largest
exporters of human hair in the world!!!!!
So who buys Chinese human
hair??????

18. Italy and India?
Even when India exports so much human hair?
This can get real interesting to figure out…
Which country imports the
most human hair in the
world?

19. China !!!!!!!!!!!
So where does China buy most of it’s
human hair from?

20. Wow, interesting…
I wonder who or what is wearing all
that Indian hair?

21. China imports most of Peru’s Animal Meal and Pellets.
So by playing around on this website for just a few minutes I
learned:
China also imports most of India’s human hair sold for export.
And China is one of the largest importers of human hair in
the world!
Your assignment is to find your own story about international
trade.
As you can see I can go on for a long time doing this.
What you are to do is pick one country to research and tell a
story about it’s international trade flows.

22. - What is China’s main import today with the most up to date data? (might only be 2015)
- What was China's main import in 2009?
- What was China's main import in 2007?
- What was China's main import in 2000?
- What is China’s main export today with the most up to date data? (might only be 2015)
- What was China's main export in 2009?
- What was China's main export in 2007?
- What was China's main export in 2000?
- Who is China’s main trading partner?
- Who is China's main trading partner today and in the year 2007 and the year 2000?
- What country doesn’t trade with China, or trades the least with China today compared to the past?
- What does it seem that China has (CA) in compared to other countries that it trades with?
- What is a notable thing that China doesn’t export or import, or at least very little of today or in the past?
- Describe at least 1 interesting and unexpected trading relationship that you learned about in tour research.
Questions to answer: (using China as an example country)
So your homework….
You are to do something like what I did here, except you are to
center your story around one country
1.) Pick a country and explore whatever you can and whatever you like to know
about the country. Answer the questions below and find some connections and try
to make a story or show some patterns of trade that you notice with your country.

23. So your homework….
You are to do something like what I did here, except you are to
center your story around one country
2.) Write a summary and analysis of what you found. Full
instructions can be found online.
1.) Pick a country and explore whatever you can and whatever you
like to know about the country. Answer the questions below and
find some connections and try to make a story or show some
patterns of trade that you notice with your country.