division of labor - dhs world geo - home · 2018-09-05 · activities: primary, secondary,...

© 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center Geography by Design, Volume 2

Use the note-taking guide below while reading IR-2: Economic Activities. What you record in each section will be based on the text you read and your background knowledge.

IR-1: Economic Activities Concept Map—Reading to Learn

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Division of Labor

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Use the note-taking guide below while reading IR-2: Economic Activities. What you record in each section will be based on the text you read and your background knowledge.

IR-1: Economic Activities Concept Map—Reading to Learn—Answer Key

of 2

Division of Labor

SECONDARYJobs that take

natural resources and convert them

into something that human beings can consume

PRIMARYJobs that relate

directly to natural resources

(farming, drilling, fishing)

TERTIARYPeople who

provide services

QUATERNARYJobs that gather, process, and use information and

capital

My Examples

•Answers will vary.

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Text Examples

•Farmers

•Fishermen

•Miners

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•Food manufacturing plants

•Oilrefineries

•Automobile assembly plants

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•Grocery store checker

•Tax accountant

•Teacher

•Doctor

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•Finance

•Insurance

•Information services


Economic Activities

Economic geography explores the patterns of resource distribution and the economic policies humans create in order to analyze the patterns of development and industry on local, regional, and global scales.

Have you ever heard the saying “There are too many chefs in the kitchen”? In any restaurant, there must be an owner; there usually is a general manager, shift managers, and employees. Some employees greet customers; some take orders while other employees cook the food. Still other employees clean off the tables and wash the dishes.

There is a similar division of labor in most societies. There are farmers, manufacturers, technicians, programmers, teachers, doctors, secretaries, political leaders, and many other jobs. The term economic activities refers to the different types of jobs people do within society to earn a living. There are four types of activities: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary.

Activities that relate directly to natural resources belong in the primary sector. Farmers have a primary sector job because they plow soil, plant seeds, irrigate and fertilize

soil, and then harvest crops. Farmers focus on growing a crop, not on getting the crop ready for humans to consume. Workers who extract resources like coal, diamonds, or salt from mineswithinEarthandfishermenwhoharvestresourcesfrom water on its surface also are considered to have primary sector jobs.

Secondary sector activities involve converting natural resources into a product that human beings can use or consume. People who work infoodmanufacturingplants,oilrefineries,orautomobile assembly plants are in the secondary sector. These jobs are commonly referred to as being in the industrial or manufacturing sector of an economy.

IR-2: Economic Activities

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Technology may be used in the primary sector to help humans extract natural resources from below Earth’s surface.

RicefarminginSoutheastAsiaisdifficultmanual labor.

What natural resources need to be available before workers on an assembly line can put a car together?


People who work in the tertiary sector provide services. This broad category includes checkers at the grocery store, tax accountants,teachers,andevendoctors.Police,fire,andEMSworkers also provide services, as do people who pick up trash from in front of your house. Employees at restaurants cook food that has been processed and serve it to customers.

Activities in the quaternary sector involve gathering, creating, processing, and using informationandcapital(e.g.,finance,insurance,and information services). A computer used for e-mail or social networking sites is very different from the sophisticated computers and software systemsthatfinancialcompanieslikeCitigrouporBerkshire Hathaway would use. Microsoft and IBM are companies that create software to manage an extreme amount of information. The doctor you visit when you have a fever provides a service to you, but a doctor who conducts research to findacureforcanceruseshighlysophisticatedcomputers and equipment and thus would be in the quaternary sector.

In some cases, quaternary activities lead to the creation of new knowledge through research. Quaternary activities are not widely accessible to most people throughout the world because these activities require expensive technology that many countriescannotafford.Countriesthatarethemost developed can afford to spend money on quaternary activities, such as infrastructure and technology for research and development.


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Besidesdirectingtraffic,what other services do policeofficersprovide?

In most restaurants, the service provided is preparing and serving the food. How many secondary sector activities must be completed before a customer can be served food?

Besides computers and medical care, what other examples could be viewed as tertiary rather than quaternary, depending on how the service is used?

What evidence in this photo suggests that doctors are in the quaternary sector?


Think about what it takes to bring all of the ingredients together to make a chocolate chip cookie. Primary sector activities involve one farmer to grow the wheatfortheflour,asecondfarmertogrowthesugar,andathirdfarmertocultivate the cacao beans from which chocolate is made. Secondary sector activities involve the three food processing plants that convert all of those raw food sources into forms that humans can consume, as well as the bakery at which the ingredients would be combined and prepared. Tertiary activities involve the truck drivers who deliver the raw products to the bakery and the grocery store that sells the cookies. Quaternary activities involve food scientists working to develop a new, more healthful cookie.

In countries that are more economically developed and have access to more advanced technology, it is possible to see farmers (primary sector) using advanced technologicaltools(quaternarysector)inthefield.Forinstance,itiscommontosee farmers in the United States with GPS computers on their tractors that show the farmer a section of their farm that is infested by insects.


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Farmers of today rely on technological tools to help them make decisions about when to plant crops and which types to plant.

While functional, antique farm equipment such as this hay baler wouldnotbethemosttime-efficienttooltousewhenproducinglarge quantities of hay.


4 Thestudentstronglyidentifiesthediversityofeconomicactivitiesandprovides ample supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated economy.

3 Thestudentidentifiesthediversityofeconomicactivitiesandprovidessomesupporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated economy.

2 Thestudentsomewhatidentifiesthediversityofeconomicactivitiesandprovides little supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated economy.

1 The student does not identify the diversity of economic activities and provides no supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated economy.

0 The student does not provide enough information to determine comprehension.

IR-3: Summarization Rubric

division of labor - dhs world geo - home · 2018-09-05 · activities: primary, secondary,...

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