D2.Geo.11.6-8: How Environments Shape Production and the Patterns of World Trade
In plain English: D2.Geo.11.6-8 is the C3 Framework geography indicator for grades 6-8 that asks students to explain how the environmental characteristics of places, such as climate, soil and rock deposits, shape which goods are produced where, and how that in turn shapes the spatial patterns of world trade. It is usually taught in middle school geography or world studies.
Explain how the relationship between the environmental characteristics of places and production of goods influences the spatial patterns of world trade.
C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Geography · Global Interconnections: Changing Spatial Patterns · Official standard
D2.Geo.11.6-8 asks students to explain how the environmental characteristics of places and the production of goods are related, and how that relationship influences the spatial patterns of world trade. Environmental characteristics are the natural features of a place: its climate (the usual weather over many years), landforms, soil, water and the minerals in its rock. Production means making or growing goods, such as mining a mineral or farming a crop. Trade is buying and selling: an export is a good sold to another country, and an import is a good bought from another country. A spatial pattern is the way something is arranged across Earth's surface, such as where a good is produced and which way it travels.
The lesson follows two real goods in opposite directions. Soda ash is a white powder whose largest use is making glass; the world's largest deposit (a large natural store of a mineral) of trona, the rock it is made from, lies in Wyoming, and the United States exports more than half of what it produces. Coffee, a farm crop, travels the other way: the United States buys it from other countries. Students read three short U.S. government sources (two from the U.S. Geological Survey and one from the U.S. Department of Agriculture), work with real data in two tables and two maps, and build explanation chains: environment, then production, then trade. They also see that the pattern can change when weather or technology changes.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Name environmental characteristics of a place (climate, landforms, soil, water, mineral deposits) and tell them apart from goods and trade.
Explain, with evidence from a source, how an environmental characteristic makes a place good at producing a particular good.
Read a data table and a trade map to describe the spatial pattern of where a good is produced and where it is exported.
Explain how the link between environment and production shapes which way a good moves in world trade, and how a change in weather or technology can change that pattern.
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Explaining how economic decisions influence places near and far D2.Geo.4.6-8
Integrating information from maps and tables with a written source RH.6-8.7
Finding the equator and the continents on a world map, and working out a percent from two numbers
"Think of something in your kitchen that was grown or made far away. Where do you think it came from? Write one reason why it might be produced there and not in your own town."
Collect four or five answers on the board in two columns: the good and the reason. Circle every reason that is about nature (warm weather, rain, a mine, good soil). Tell students that geographers call these environmental characteristics, and that this lesson asks how they help decide what is produced where and which way goods travel.
Direct Instruction15 minutes
Part 1: The chain. Write three boxes on the board joined by arrows: environment, then production, then trade. A place's environment can make it good at producing something; when a place produces more of a good than it uses, it can export the extra, and places that cannot produce the good import it. The arrows on a trade map are the spatial pattern that results.
Part 2: Two goods. Soda ash (sodium carbonate) can come from a natural mineral called trona, mined from layers of rock, or it can be made in a factory from salt and limestone, which is called synthetic soda ash. Coffee is the seed of a tree that grows on farms in warm places. Show Table 1 and Table 2 (a crop year is the 12-month season of one harvest), then Diagram 1 and Diagram 2. In the caption of Diagram 2, a customs district is an area whose ports and border crossings record goods leaving the country. On the map, the equator is the line halfway between the poles, and the tropics are the warm zone between the Tropic of Cancer (about 23.4° north) and the Tropic of Capricorn (about 23.4° south).
Table 1. Soda ash, 2024 estimates, in thousand metric tons (real data: U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025)
Item
Amount
U.S. production (all natural, from trona and from very salty waters called brines)
12,000
U.S. exports
7,400
U.S. imports
10
Natural soda ash: United States
12,000
Natural soda ash: Turkey
11,000
Natural soda ash: Kenya
300
Natural soda ash: Botswana
270
Natural soda ash: Ethiopia
20
World total, natural (rounded)
24,000
World total, synthetic (made in factories)
49,000
Table 2. Coffee in the 2025/26 crop year, in million bags of 60 kilograms (real data: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, PSD Online, July 2026 estimates for the latest completed crop year; "used" means used inside the country)
Country or group
Where it lies
Coffee grown
Coffee used
Brazil
Mostly in the tropics
63.0
22.3
Vietnam
In the tropics
31.7
4.9
Colombia
In the tropics
12.5
2.2
Indonesia
In the tropics
12.4
4.8
Ethiopia
In the tropics
11.6
4.5
United States
Mostly outside the tropics
0.05
25.6
European Union
Mostly outside the tropics
0
41.6
Japan
Mostly outside the tropics
0
6.7
Building the chain for soda ash
Source 1 says the world's largest deposit of trona is in the Green River Basin of Wyoming. Build the chain from environment to production to trade.
Result: Environment: a huge natural trona deposit in Wyoming's rock. Production: four companies run five soda ash plants in Wyoming. Trade: the United States sells much of its soda ash abroad.
Working out an export share
Use Table 1. What percent of U.S. soda ash production was exported in 2024? Does it match Source 1?
Result: 7,400 ÷ 12,000 ≈ 0.62, so about 62% was exported. That matches Source 1, paragraph 3: "More than one-half of U.S. soda ash production was exported."
Grown versus used
Use Table 2. How much more coffee do Brazil and Ethiopia each grow than they use?
Result: Brazil: 63.0 - 22.3 = 40.7 million bags. Ethiopia: 11.6 - 4.5 = 7.1 million bags. Both grow more than they use, so both have coffee left over to export.
Reading the soda ash map
Look at Diagram 2. What share of all U.S. soda ash exports went to the two largest buyers, and in which directions do those two arrows point from Wyoming?
Result: Mexico 19% + Indonesia 12% = 31%. One arrow points south, overland to a neighbor; the other points west, across the Pacific Ocean to Asia.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Read Sources 1 and 2 together. Both come from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the government science agency that tracks minerals. Words to know: a deposit is a large amount of a mineral in one place; brines are very salty waters; end use means what a product is used for; flue gas desulfurization is cleaning sulfur out of smoke from power plants; practically inexhaustible means so plentiful it will not run out; a customs district is an area whose ports and border crossings record goods leaving the country; localities are places that are not countries, such as Taiwan; "Mt" means million metric tons. Paragraph numbers count only the paragraphs shown.
1The U.S. soda ash industry consisted of four companies in Wyoming operating five plants and one company in California operating one plant. [...]
2Based on 2024 quarterly reports, the estimated distribution of soda ash by end use was glass, 45%; chemicals, 29%; miscellaneous uses, 9%; distributors, 7%; soap and detergents, 5%; flue gas desulfurization, 3%; pulp and paper, 1%; and water treatment, 1%.
[...]
3Events, Trends, and Issues: Domestic production of soda ash in 2024 was estimated to have increased by 10% compared with that in 2023, and estimated exports increased by 11%. [...] More than one-half of U.S. soda ash production was exported in 2024.
4Relatively low production costs and lower environmental impacts provided natural soda ash producers in Turkey and the United States some advantage over producers of synthetic soda ash. The production of synthetic soda ash normally consumes more energy and releases more carbon dioxide than that of natural soda ash.
5In 2024, China produced an estimated 36 million tons of soda ash (most of which was synthetic) and was the leading global producer followed by, in descending order, the United States and Turkey. Together, China, Turkey, and the United States accounted for 81% of global soda ash production in 2024.
[...]
6Natural soda ash is obtained from trona and sodium carbonate-rich brines. The world’s largest deposit of trona is in the Green River Basin of Wyoming. [...] Although soda ash can be manufactured from salt and limestone, both of which are practically inexhaustible, synthetic soda ash is costlier to produce and generates environmental wastes.
JohnRyan MacGregor, U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025: Soda Ash, selected paragraphs (Source 1) (2025). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
1According to the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. exports of soda ash in 2019 were 7.02 Mt, which represented 60% of U.S. soda ash production (table 1). For comparison, exports accounted for only 5% of U.S. production in 1970, 26% in 1990, and 51% in 2010. In 2019, the regional distribution of United States soda ash exports to 51 countries was as follows: Asia, 48%; Central America and South America, 24%; North America, 21%; Australia and Oceania, 4%; Africa, 2%; and Europe, 1% (table 5). The average free alongside ship value was $221 per metric ton in 2019 compared with $210 per metric ton in 2018. In 2019, the 12 leading countries or localities that each received more than 200,000 t of soda ash, were, in descending order of tonnage, Mexico, 19%; Indonesia, 12%; Brazil, 11%; Malaysia, 7%; Chile, 6%; Australia, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, 4% each; and Taiwan, 3% (table 6). About two-thirds of all U.S. soda ash exports went through the Columbia-Snake River, OR, customs district; the Laredo, TX, customs district ranked second with 13% of the total, and the Port Arthur, TX, customs district was third with 6% of the total (table 5).
Wallace P. Bolen, U.S. Geological Survey, 2019 Minerals Yearbook: Soda Ash, the paragraph on exports (Source 2) (2024). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
Find the environment. Students underline the sentence in Source 1 that names a natural characteristic of Wyoming. Prompt: is a rock deposit an environmental characteristic? (Yes: it is part of the natural place, like climate or soil.)
Find the advantage. Prompt: according to Source 1, paragraph 4, why do producers of natural soda ash have an advantage over factories that make synthetic soda ash? Students answer in their own words and quote two or three words as evidence.
Read Diagram 2 with Source 2. Students list the five largest buyers and their shares, then find which world region bought the most U.S. soda ash. Ask why Laredo, Texas, a city on the border with Mexico, ranks second among the customs districts in Source 2.
Write the chain. As a class, write a three-sentence chain for soda ash: environment, production, trade. Keep it on the board for Independent Practice.
Independent Practice15-20 minutes
Read Source 3 and write your own chain for coffee. Source 3 comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service, which reports on farm goods around the world. Words to know: Arabica and Robusta are the two main kinds of coffee plant; biennial means every two years; yield is how much crop a field produces; a plateau is a wide area of high, fairly flat land; a microclimate is the climate of a small area, such as one mountain slope; frost is ice that forms when the temperature drops below freezing; drought is a long period with too little rain; mechanized means done by machines; soil moisture is the water held in the soil; a coffee cherry is the small fruit that holds the coffee seeds, or beans.
Students write a paragraph of 5-7 sentences that explains how the environments of coffee-growing places shape where coffee is produced and which way it is traded. They must use one number from Table 2, one detail from Diagram 1 and at least one quotation from Source 3, cited by paragraph.
1Brazil accounts for nearly 40 percent of world production and exerts significant influence on global supplies and prices. Brazil’s role in Arabica markets is even more pronounced, typically supplying between 40 and 50 percent depending on the biennial crop production cycle. Arabica trees naturally alternate between high-yielding on-years and lower-yielding off-years as energy shifts between fruit and vegetative growth.
2This biennial pattern is especially evident in Brazil due to several unique growing conditions. Arabica trees are cultivated on elevated plateaus and rolling hills with relatively uniform weather patterns, rather than mountainous microclimates that are typical of other producing countries. Extreme weather events such as frost, heat, or drought tend to synchronize yields across large areas by forcing trees into an off-year. Brazil’s geography also supports mechanized pruning and harvesting, further harmonizing output.
[...]
3Colombia output is expected to rise 900,000 bags to 13.4 million on adequate soil moisture from last year’s excessive rains and increased utilization of inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. Coffee bean exports, mostly to the United States and European Union, are forecast up 500,000 bags to 12.2 million on higher output.
[...]
4Indonesia production is forecast to drop 1.0 million bags to 11.4 million. Robusta output is expected to decrease 1.0 million bags to 10.0 million bags due to lower yields. Excessive rainfall disrupted flowering and cherry formation in the lowland areas of Southern Sumatra and Java, where approximately 75 percent is grown. Arabica production is expected flat at 1.4 million bags on normal growing conditions. Reduced output is expected to cut bean exports by over 800,000 bags to 7.0 million.
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Global Market Analysis, Coffee: World Markets and Trade, July 2026, selected paragraphs (Source 3) (2026). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
Closure10 minutes
Exit ticket. "Choose soda ash or coffee. In two sentences, explain one way a change in the environment or in technology could change which way that good travels in world trade."
Teacher note on the data. The numbers are real but are estimates and forecasts that the agencies revise; the coffee figures are for the 2025/26 crop year as published in July 2026, and the export destinations in Source 2 and Diagram 2 are for 2019, not 2024: 2019 is the latest year with a full written USGS yearbook chapter on soda ash (USGS has released later years as data tables only), so tell students the buyers and shares may have shifted since then. Table 2 shows coffee grown and used; a country's exports in one year can differ from "grown minus used," because coffee can be stored, and some growers also import coffee. Keep the focus on the pattern, not on exact totals. The lesson does not judge trade policy: if students raise tariffs (taxes on imports) or trade disputes, note that those are questions about trade barriers (D2.Eco.14.6-8).
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give students the chain frame: "Because [place] has [environmental characteristic], it can produce [good]. It produces more than it uses, so it exports [good] to [places]."
Read Source 1, paragraphs 4 and 6, and Source 3, paragraph 2, aloud, and let students work with those three paragraphs only.
Provide a word bank with pictures: deposit, mine, climate, tropics, frost, export, import.
For Advanced Students
Use Source 2: exports were 5% of U.S. soda ash production in 1970 and 60% in 2019. Write two possible reasons for the change and say what evidence would test each one.
Source 1 says natural soda ash is cheaper to produce than synthetic soda ash, yet synthetic soda ash is about two-thirds of world production (Table 1). Suggest one geographic reason why many countries still make it in factories.
Pick a third good (for example bananas, cacao or copper), find an official source on where it is produced, and draw its trade pattern as a chain.
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong answers keep the three links of the chain distinct (an environmental characteristic, the production it allows, and the trade that results), use a real number or quotation for at least two links, and describe a direction of trade, not just a list of places. Watch for answers that treat trade itself as an environmental characteristic, for claims that a good can be produced only in one place (soda ash can also be made in factories, and the United States grows a little coffee), and for map readings that ignore the tropic lines.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
The Pelora Islands: Who Makes What, and Who Trades with Whom?
20 minGroups of 4
The Pelora Islands are an invented island group made up for this activity. Each group gets 4 island profile cards and 8 goods cards. Students match each good to the island whose environment suits it, then draw trade arrows on a sketch map: every island needs all 8 goods, so each island must export what it makes and import what it cannot.
The 4 Island Profile Cards (invented)
Kestrin: near the equator; hot and rainy all year, never any frost; rich soil formed from old volcanic rock on its hill slopes.
Mabrou: a desert island; the bed of an ancient lake holds thick layers of salt and other minerals; very little fresh water.
Tellis: far from the equator; cool, windy and frosty in winter, with short summers; wide grassy plains.
Ondara: steep mountains covered in forest, fast rivers, and a large deposit of copper ore (rock that holds copper metal).
The 8 Goods Cards
Coffee beans; bananas; table salt; lake-bed minerals for glassmaking; wool from sheep; barley (a grain); lumber; copper.
Tasks
Place two goods cards on each island card. For each match, write the environmental characteristic that makes it work.
On a sketch map, draw an arrow for every good from the island that makes it to each island that needs it. Count your arrows.
Write one sentence describing the spatial pattern of trade for one good.
Answer Key
Kestrin: coffee and bananas (warm all year, no frost, rich soil). Mabrou: table salt and lake-bed minerals (the ancient lake left mineral layers). Tellis: wool and barley (grassy plains for grazing; barley can ripen in a short, cool summer). Ondara: lumber and copper (forests and the ore deposit). Each good is made on one island and needed by the other three, so there are 8 × 3 = 24 arrows, 6 leaving each island. Sample pattern: coffee moves outward from the one hot, frost-free island to the three others.
Discussion
Ask: could Tellis grow coffee in a heated greenhouse? (It could, but at a much higher cost, which is why it would rather import.) Which real good in this lesson is most like Mabrou's lake-bed minerals? (Soda ash from trona.) What would happen to the arrows if a new mine opened on Tellis?
2
Trade-Map Lab: Reading Two Real Patterns
20 minPairs
Pairs use Tables 1-2 and Diagrams 1-2 to measure the two real trade patterns, then sum each one up in a sentence a reader could check on the map. USDA puts world coffee production in 2025/26 at 178.8 million bags.
Tasks
Use Table 1. What percent of the world's natural soda ash came from the United States and Turkey together in 2024?
Use Table 2 and the world total above. What percent of the world's coffee did the top five producers grow?
Use Source 2. Add the shares of the five largest buyers of U.S. soda ash. What percent went to all other buyers?
On a blank world map, shade the tropics. Draw coffee arrows from the five producers in Table 2 toward the three importers, and soda ash arrows from Wyoming toward the five largest buyers.
Write one sentence for each good that names where it is produced, why there, and which way it moves.
Answer Key
1. (12,000 + 11,000) ÷ 24,000 ≈ 0.96, about 96%. 2. 63.0 + 31.7 + 12.5 + 12.4 + 11.6 = 131.2 million bags; 131.2 ÷ 178.8 ≈ 0.73, about 73%. 3. 19 + 12 + 11 + 7 + 6 = 55%, so 45% went to all other buyers. 5. Sample: "Natural soda ash comes mainly from rare trona deposits in the United States and Turkey, and U.S. soda ash moves out to dozens of countries, above all in Asia and Latin America."
3
What If the Pattern Changed? Scenario Cards
15 minGroups of 3
Each group draws two of the four scenario cards. For each one, students say which link of the chain changes first (environment, production or trade), then predict what happens to the trade arrows and back the prediction with a source.
The 4 Scenario Cards
A hard frost hits the coffee plateaus of Brazil during the southern winter.
Too much rain falls during flowering in the lowlands of Sumatra and Java, where most of Indonesia's coffee grows.
Engineers invent a much cheaper way to make synthetic soda ash in factories.
On the invented island of Ondara, a long drought dries up the fast rivers that carry logs to the coast.
Answer Key
1. Environment first: Source 3, paragraph 2, says frost can force trees "into an off-year" across large areas, so Brazil grows less and has less to export; buyers may look to other producers. 2. Environment first: Source 3, paragraph 4, links too much rain to lower Robusta yields and says reduced output is expected to cut bean exports. 3. Production first: Source 1, paragraph 4, says the natural producers' advantage is lower cost; a cheaper factory process could shrink that advantage, so more countries might make their own soda ash and U.S. export arrows could shrink. 4. Environment first: lumber is harder to move, so Ondara's lumber exports fall until roads or trucks replace the rivers. Accept other predictions that follow the chain and cite a source.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: Where Coffee Is Grown and Where It Is Imported
Real data: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, PSD Online (July 2026), 2025/26 crop year. Blue circles show coffee grown by the five largest producers; dark circles show coffee imported by the three largest importers (the European Union counted as one). Each circle sits at the computed center of the country's largest land area (for the European Union, of its members' largest land areas). Dashed lines mark the Equator and the two tropic lines. Circle area is proportional to the amount. Map outline: Natural Earth 1:110m countries (naturalearthdata.com), a public-domain map data set, not an official government source; outlines and borders are simplified.
Diagram 2: Where U.S. Soda Ash Went in 2019
Real data: U.S. Geological Survey, 2019 Minerals Yearbook, Soda Ash (from U.S. Census Bureau trade data). Arrows run from Green River, Wyoming, in the Green River Basin, to the five largest buyers; line thickness shows each buyer's share of all U.S. soda ash exports. The arrows show direction, not shipping routes: about two-thirds of the exports left through the Columbia-Snake River customs district (Portland, Oregon) and 13% through Laredo, Texas. City points are Census Bureau Gazetteer coordinates; buyer points are computed centers of each country's largest land area. Map outline: Natural Earth 1:110m countries (naturalearthdata.com), a public-domain map data set, not an official government source; outlines and borders are simplified.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
D2.Geo.11.6-8 Homework: Varnholt and Quessa
Directions: Varnholt and Quessa are invented countries, made up for this homework, and all their facts and numbers are invented. Read the two profiles, then answer the problems in complete sentences.
Varnholt (invented): a cold, rocky country far from the equator; thick pine forests; summers too short and cool for most fruit; a large deposit of iron ore (rock that iron is made from) beside a deep harbor that stays free of ice. Varnholt mines 30 million tons of iron ore a year and uses 6 million tons itself.
Quessa (invented): a warm country between the tropic lines; a long rainy season; wide river valleys with rich soil; thousands of small farms growing cacao, the tree whose seeds are made into chocolate; no iron ore. Quessa grows 900,000 tons of cacao a year and uses 40,000 tons itself.
Part 1: Environment, Goods and Numbers (Problems 1-3)
Make a three-column list for each country: environmental characteristics, goods it can produce, and goods it would need to import. Put at least two items in each column.
What percent of its iron ore does Varnholt have left over to export? What percent of its cacao does Quessa have left over to export? Show your work.
Sketch a simple map with the equator, the two tropic lines, Varnholt and Quessa. Draw and label the trade arrows you expect between them, and explain the direction of each arrow in one sentence.
Part 2: Explain and Predict (Problems 4-6)
Write a three-link chain (environment, production, trade) for Quessa's cacao, with one detail from the profile for each link.
Compare Varnholt's iron ore with Wyoming's soda ash from Sources 1-2. Give one way the two are alike and one way they are different.
Geologists discover a large iron ore deposit in Quessa. Write a paragraph of 5-7 sentences predicting how the trade pattern between the two countries could change, and explain why using the environment-production-trade chain.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Identifies Characteristics and Goods
Environmental characteristics, goods and needed imports correctly sorted for both countries
Some items misplaced, or one country incomplete
Missing or mostly wrong
Uses the Numbers
Both percents correct with work shown
One percent correct, or a small error
No correct calculation
Explains Trade Direction
Arrows and chains show clearly why each good moves from where it is produced to where it is needed
Direction shown but the reason is vague
No direction or no reason
Compares and Predicts
A supported comparison with the real sources and a prediction that follows the chain
Comparison or prediction is general or unsupported
Missing
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 4, 5, 15 and 16 use Source 1, and questions 7, 8, 9 and 17 use Source 2 (both in Guided Practice). Questions 11, 12 and 14 use Source 3 in Independent Practice. Questions 6, 13, 14, 15 and 19 use Tables 1-2 in Direct Instruction, and questions 10, 14, 17 and 20 use Diagrams 1-2. Choose the best answer, then check it.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which of these is an environmental characteristic of a place?
Answer: A
Trona in the rock is part of nature, so it is an environmental characteristic. A factory (B) is something people built for production, and the train (C) and the shipment (D) are part of trade.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which of these is an example of production of a good?
Answer: B
Harvesting a crop is producing a good. A climate (A) is an environmental characteristic, a ship carrying coffee (C) is trade, and the Tropic of Cancer (D) is a line on the map, not a good.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which of these is an import for the United States?
Answer: C
An import is a good bought from another country, so coffee from Colombia is a U.S. import. Choice A is an export, the reverse direction; B and D are goods produced inside the United States.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, paragraph 2, what was the largest end use of soda ash in 2024?
Answer: D
Source 1 lists "glass, 45%" first, the largest share. Chemicals (A) are second at 29%; students who pick A may have read the second item. Soap and detergents (B) are 5% and water treatment (C) 1%.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which environmental characteristic of Wyoming does Source 1 name?
Answer: B
Paragraph 6 says "The world's largest deposit of trona is in the Green River Basin of Wyoming." The other choices are environmental characteristics too, but Source 1 never mentions them; C and D describe invented places from this lesson's activity and homework, not Wyoming.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Table 1. About what percent of the world's natural soda ash did Turkey produce in 2024?
Answer: C
11,000 ÷ 24,000 ≈ 0.46, so about 46%. Choice B (15%) divides by 73,000, the world total of natural and synthetic soda ash, instead of the natural total. Choice D (54%) is the share of everyone except Turkey. Choice A (92%) is Turkey's share of U.S. soda ash imports in the USGS report, a different number.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 2 says U.S. soda ash exports were 7.02 million metric tons in 2019 and that Mexico received 19%. About how much soda ash went to Mexico?
Answer: A
19% of 7.02 is 0.19 × 7.02 ≈ 1.33, about 1.3 million metric tons. Choice B divides 7.02 by 19 instead of multiplying by 0.19. Choice C multiplies by 1.9, a misplaced decimal. Choice D (7.02 × 0.81) is what went to all other buyers.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Source 2. Together, what share of U.S. soda ash exports did Asia and North America buy in 2019?
Answer: D
Asia bought 48% and North America 21%: 48 + 21 = 69%. Choice A (72%) adds Asia and Central and South America (48 + 24) instead. Choice B (27%) subtracts the two shares, and choice C (21%) is North America alone.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 2 says exports were 5% of U.S. soda ash production in 1970 and 60% in 2019. How many times as large was the 2019 share?
Answer: B
60 ÷ 5 = 12, so the 2019 share was 12 times as large. Choice A (55) subtracts the shares, which gives a difference in percentage points (the plain gap between two percents), not "times as large." Choice C adds them, and choice D divides the wrong way (5 ÷ 60 ≈ 0.08).
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Diagram 1 shows that the European Union imported 46.5 million bags of coffee and grows none. Which environmental reason best explains this?
Answer: A
On Diagram 1 the European Union lies far north of the Tropic of Cancer, where winters bring frost, while all five top producers lie mostly in the tropics. Choice B confuses coffee with soda ash, choice C reverses the map, and choice D is false: the map shows long European coastlines.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 3, paragraph 2, says Brazil's Arabica trees grow on "elevated plateaus and rolling hills with relatively uniform weather patterns." Why can one frost there affect world coffee trade?
Answer: C
Source 3 says extreme weather such as frost tends to "synchronize yields across large areas," so one frost can lower the crop on many farms at once, leaving less coffee for Brazil to export. A frost does not change the land's slope (A) or the kind of tree (B), and choice D confuses where coffee grows with how it is shipped.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 4, what happened to Indonesia's coffee crop?
Answer: D
The source says excessive rainfall "disrupted flowering and cherry formation" in the lowlands of Southern Sumatra and Java, lowering Robusta output, and that reduced output is expected to cut exports. Choices A and B name the wrong kind of weather, and choice C reverses the change: production is forecast to drop by 1.0 million bags.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Table 2. How many million bags more coffee does Vietnam grow than it uses?
Answer: B
31.7 - 4.9 = 26.8 million bags. Choice A adds the two numbers instead of subtracting. Choice C divides them (31.7 ÷ 4.9 ≈ 6.5), which tells how many times as much, not how much more. Choice D is the amount Vietnam uses.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 3, paragraph 3, says Colombia's coffee exports go "mostly to the United States and European Union." Which statement best explains this direction of trade?
Answer: A
Table 2 shows the United States uses 25.6 million bags and grows 0.05 million, and the European Union uses 41.6 million and grows none, so they must import. Choice B is false on Diagram 1, choice C reverses Table 2 (Colombia grows 12.5 and uses 2.2), and choice D gets the climate backward.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Table 1 shows Turkey produced 11,000 thousand metric tons of natural soda ash in 2024, and Source 1 says natural producers have an advantage. Use the environment-production-trade chain to explain why Turkey is in a strong position to sell soda ash to other countries.
Model answer: Environment: Turkey, like Wyoming, has natural deposits from which soda ash can be produced, which most countries lack. Production: Turkey produced about 11,000 thousand metric tons of natural soda ash, nearly as much as the United States, and Source 1 says natural producers have "relatively low production costs." Trade: because its soda ash costs less to produce than synthetic soda ash made in factories, Turkey can sell it to countries without deposits; the USGS report even lists Turkey as the main source of the small U.S. imports. Rubric: 2 points for all three links with a number or quotation; 1 point for two links.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Source 1, paragraph 6, says soda ash "can be manufactured from salt and limestone, both of which are practically inexhaustible." Which discovery would be more likely to change the world trade pattern for soda ash: a large new trona deposit in another country, or a large new salt mine? Explain using the source.
Model answer: A new trona deposit would be more likely to change the pattern. Source 1 says salt and limestone are "practically inexhaustible," so one more salt mine adds little to what factories can already get. But natural soda ash from trona avoids the factory process, which the source says is "costlier to produce and generates environmental wastes." A country with a big new trona deposit could produce cheap soda ash and might buy less from the United States or start exporting its own. Rubric: 2 points for choosing trona with both quotations or ideas; 1 point for the right choice with a weak reason.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Diagram 2 shows the soda ash plants in Wyoming, but Source 2 says about two-thirds of U.S. soda ash exports left through the Columbia-Snake River customs district in Oregon. Using Source 2 and Diagram 2, explain why a Pacific Northwest port makes sense for these exports.
Model answer: Source 2 says Asia bought 48% of U.S. soda ash exports, the largest share of any region, and Indonesia and Malaysia are among the five largest buyers on Diagram 2. Ships to Asia cross the Pacific Ocean, so soda ash travels from Wyoming to a Pacific port such as Portland and then by sea. The location of the buyers shapes the route, as well as the location of the trona. Rubric: 2 points for linking the Asian buyers to a Pacific port with a number; 1 point for naming the ocean or the buyers only.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
An invented farming town in the tropics grows 500 tons of bananas a year and its people eat 120 tons. What percent of the bananas are left over to sell to other places? Name one environmental characteristic that could explain why the town grows so many.
Model answer: 500 - 120 = 380 tons left over, and 380 ÷ 500 = 0.76, so 76% can be sold elsewhere. An environmental characteristic such as warm weather with no frost all year, plenty of rain or rich soil could explain the large harvest. Rubric: 2 points for 76% with work and a fitting environmental characteristic; 1 point for one of the two.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Table 1 shows that Kenya and Botswana also produce natural soda ash. Explain why they play a much smaller part in world soda ash trade than the United States, even though they share the same kind of environmental characteristic.
Model answer: Kenya produced about 300 and Botswana about 270 thousand metric tons in 2024, while the United States produced 12,000, about 40 times as much as Kenya. Having natural soda ash is only the start: how big the deposits are and how much is mined and processed decide how much a country has left to sell. With much smaller production, they have far less to export. Rubric: 2 points for comparing the numbers and explaining that the amount produced limits exports; 1 point for a comparison without explanation.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Japan grows no coffee, yet it used 6.7 million bags in 2025/26. Using Diagram 1, explain where Japan's coffee most likely comes from and why, in terms of environment, production and trade.
Model answer: Japan lies outside the tropics, so its environment does not suit coffee farms, and it produces none. It must import all of it from countries that grow more than they use. Diagram 1 shows large producers such as Vietnam and Indonesia in the tropics, closer to Japan than Brazil, so some of its coffee likely comes from tropical Asia, though the map shows amounts, not trade partners. Rubric: 2 points for the environment reason, the need to import and a likely source region from the map; 1 point for two of these.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does D2.Geo.11.6-8 mean?
D2.Geo.11.6-8 asks middle school students to explain how a place's natural setting affects what it produces, and how that in turn affects which way goods move around the world. The full text is "Explain how the relationship between the environmental characteristics of places and production of goods influences the spatial patterns of world trade." Students connect three links: environment, production and trade.
What grade is D2.Geo.11.6-8 taught in?
It belongs to the C3 grades 6-8 band, so it can be taught in any middle school year. It usually fits a world geography or world studies unit on resources, farming or trade. The grades 9-12 indicator with the same number, D2.Geo.11.9-12, moves on to how globalization and scarce resources lead to conflict and cooperation.
What counts as an environmental characteristic?
An environmental characteristic is a natural feature of a place. Climate, landforms, soil, water, plants and the minerals in the rock all count. Things people build or do, such as factories, railroads or trade, are not environmental characteristics, even when they depend on the environment.
Why does this lesson use soda ash instead of something more familiar?
Soda ash shows clearly that rocks, and not just climate, are part of a place's environment. It goes into everyday glass, and the U.S. Geological Survey publishes clear yearly data on where it is produced and where U.S. exports go. Pairing it with coffee, a farm crop that depends on climate, shows trade running in both directions for the same country.
Does the environment decide everything about trade?
No: the environment sets what is possible, but people's choices, technology, transportation, prices and trade rules also shape trade patterns. The lesson keeps its focus on the environment-production link the indicator names, and its scenario activity shows how a change in weather or technology can shift a pattern.
What mistakes do students often make with this standard?
A frequent mistake is listing places without explaining the link, for example "coffee comes from Brazil" with no reason. Other errors include calling a factory or a port an environmental characteristic, mixing up imports and exports, and assuming a good can come from only one place. Ask students to write all three links of the chain every time.
How can I assess D2.Geo.11.6-8?
Ask students to explain a trade pattern for a good they have not studied, using a short source and a map. The strongest evidence is a written chain that names an environmental characteristic, the production it allows and the direction of trade, supported by a number or quotation. The quiz and homework on this page include both data questions and short written explanations.
Are the numbers in this lesson real?
Yes, except where an item is labeled invented. The soda ash figures come from the U.S. Geological Survey (Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 and the 2019 Minerals Yearbook), and the coffee figures from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (July 2026). They are estimates the agencies revise, so newer reports may show slightly different numbers. The Pelora Islands, Varnholt and Quessa are invented.
How does this standard connect to economics?
It connects closely to trade topics in the C3 economics strand. Economics asks why countries trade and what helps or blocks trade (for example D2.Eco.14.6-8 on barriers to trade); geography asks where goods are produced and why trade flows run in particular directions. This lesson stays on the geographic side and does not judge trade policies.
Can students do this standard with local examples?
Yes, and it works well as an extension. Students can pick a good produced in their own state, such as a crop, a mineral or seafood, find an official source on where it is produced, and trace where it is sold. The same three-link chain applies at every scale.
07
Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to D2.Geo.11.6-8: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
D2.Geo.4.6-8Prerequisite
Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and lives
Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.
