Indiana Social Studies WG.4.9
The Standard
Identify patterns of economic activity in terms of primary (growing or extracting), secondary (manufacturing), tertiary (distributing and services), quaternary (intellectual activities, technological innovation), and quinary (executive or official) activities. Plot data and draw conclusions about how the percentage of the working population in each of these categories varies by country and changes over time.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Economic Interdependence (Globalization)
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students sort jobs into five groups: growing or extracting, manufacturing, services, research and technology, and leadership. They graph each group's share of workers in different countries and years, then explain what changed.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can place a farmer, factory worker, delivery driver, research scientist, and government minister in the right groups. They can read their graph and use percentages to compare countries and describe a change over time.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may put delivery drivers in manufacturing because they carry factory goods, or put researchers with other service workers. They may mistake a larger share of workers for a larger number of workers.
How to Assess It
- Give students employment shares in group order: Country A in 2000 (40, 25, 25, 8, 2) and 2020 (20, 25, 38, 14, 3); Country B in 2000 (10, 30, 40, 15, 5) and 2020 (5, 20, 45, 22, 8). Ask them to draw four stacked bars and write one comparison between countries and one change over time.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs five job cards, cocoa farmer, factory worker, delivery driver, food scientist, and CEO, to place on a five-column mat.
Show two employment charts and ask, “Which job group gained the most share, and what numbers support your answer?”
Play a sector sort: teams place 15 job cards under five labels, then trade mats and challenge two choices.
Bring a chocolate bar wrapper and map its cocoa grower, factory worker, delivery driver, food scientist, and CEO to job groups.
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