The lowly pencil is often overlooked as an item of significance, but senior economics students have recently learned to appreciate the complexity of such a seemingly simple device.  After reading I, Pencil, the students learned about all of the economic principles at work to create the pencil.  With materials from the United States, Mexico, Singapore, China, Brazil, and many other countries, the pencil is a simple representation of how trade and specialization work. 

     To further demonstrate the principles of trade, the seniors began "The Pencil Project."  Each student was given a pencil.  Students were instructed to trade the pencil for another item of greater value.  At first, the students made simple exchanges.  Pencils were traded for pens, highlighters, or markers.  Over the course of a week, the students continued in their trading.  With first-hand experience, the students were learning how market transactions occur.  By the final day of the project, students returned with a plethora of items. Through a series of exchanges, Jamie Dailey traded his pencil for a recorder.  T'Aunnah Barron traded her pencil to end up with a battery-powered radio with a hand crank in case the batteries are depleted.  Tyler Peebles, for example, gained a Dale Earnhardt die-cast car through his trades.  Caitlyn Carpenter showed the value of negotiation skills as she was able to trade her pencil to obtain an android tablet.  Some students returned with $20 cash.

     Students were able to keep all the items they earned through the series of trades.  Other students ended the project in possession of items like jewelry, hats, mousepads, notebooks, novels, a homemade banjo, keychains, book bags, calculators,ect.  "The Pencil Project" demonstrated a number of other economic principles as it was used in coordination with I, Pencil. To learn more about I, Pencil, visit the following link: http://www.fee.org/library/detail/i-pencil-audio-pdf-and-html.