That's a dang fine cup of coffee...

One of the subjects taught in 4^th grade is Washington state history. In the process of learning about our history the students will research information on our imports, exports and businesses. One of our largest businesses is Starbucks. In researching the company, one must ask where does Starbucks get its coffee beans from? Since the beans mainly come from Africa, Latin-America and the Asia-Pacific regions, the students could research through google from the perspective of Ethiopia, Costa Rica, and Indonesia on how they view the export of these goods to Starbucks. This information would be entered collaboratively into a google doc. The students would then discuss similarities and differences about each countries viewpoint. Since my husband’s parents lived there for 15 years, through a family contact I would then set up a video chat with a coffee grower in Costa Rica with a translator who could give the students a brief tour and answer their prepared questions. The modification is the use of collaborative processes such as google docs for notes of the three countries perspectives to facilitate group discussions and researching from each countries perspective. What redefines the process is being able to video chat with a coffee producer in Costa Rica.