IR-1: Economic Activities Concept Map—Reading to Learn
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.
Division
of Labor
© 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center
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Page 1 of 2
Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-1: Economic Activities Concept Map—Reading to Learn—Answer Key
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.
PRIMARY
Jobs that relate
directly to natural
resources
(farming, drilling,
fishing)
Text Examples
My Examples
•Farmers
•Answers will vary.
•Fishermen
•Miners
SECONDARY
Jobs that take
natural resources
and convert them
into something that
human beings
can consume
Division
of Labor
Text Examples
My Examples
•Food
manufacturing
plants
•Answers will vary.
•Oil refineries
•Automobile
assembly plants
TERTIARY
People who
provide services
Text Examples
My Examples
•Grocery store
checker
•Answers will vary.
•Tax accountant
•Teacher
QUATERNARY
Jobs that gather,
process, and use
information and
capital
•Doctor
Text Examples
My Examples
•Finance
•Answers will vary.
•Insurance
•Information
services
© 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center
Page 2 of 2
Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-2: Economic Activities
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
Rice farming in Southeast Asia is difficult
resources like coal,
manual labor.
diamonds, or salt from
Technology may be used in
mines within Earth and fishermen who harvest resources
the primary sector to help
from water on its surface also are considered to have
humans extract natural
primary sector jobs.
resources from below
Earth’s surface.
Secondary sector activities involve converting
natural resources into a product that human
beings can use or consume. People who work
in food manufacturing plants, oil refineries, or
automobile assembly plants are in the secondary
sector. These jobs are commonly referred to as
being in the industrial or manufacturing sector of
an economy.
What natural resources need to
be available before workers on an
assembly line can put a car together?
© 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center
Page 1 of 3
Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-2: Economic Activities
People who work in the tertiary sector provide services. This
broad category includes checkers at the grocery store, tax
accountants, teachers, and even doctors. Police, fire, and EMS
workers 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.
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 directing traffic,
what other services do
police officers provide?
Activities in the quaternary sector involve
gathering, creating, processing, and using
information and capital (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
systems that financial companies like Citigroup or
Berkshire 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
Besides computers and medical care,
to you, but a doctor who conducts research to
what other examples could be viewed
find a cure for cancer uses highly sophisticated
as tertiary rather than quaternary,
depending on how the service is used? computers 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
countries cannot afford. Countries that are the
most developed can afford to spend money on
quaternary activities, such as infrastructure and
technology for research and development.
What evidence in this photo suggests
that doctors are in the quaternary
sector?
© 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center
Page 2 of 3
Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-2: Economic Activities
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
wheat for the flour, a second farmer to grow the sugar, and a third farmer to
cultivate 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
technological tools (quaternary sector) in the field. For instance, it is common to
see 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.
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
would not be the most time-efficient tool to use when producing
large quantities of hay.
© 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center
Page 3 of 3
Geography by Design, Volume 2
IR-3: Summarization Rubric
4
he student strongly identifies the diversity of economic activities and
T
provides ample supporting evidence explaining the connection between them
in an integrated economy.
3
he student identifies the diversity of economic activities and provides some
T
supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an integrated
economy.
2
he student somewhat identifies the diversity of economic activities and
T
provides little supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in
an integrated economy.
1The student does not identify the diversity of economic activities and provides
no supporting evidence explaining the connection between them in an
integrated economy.
0The student does not provide enough information to determine
comprehension.
© 2013 Region 4 Education Service Center
Geography by Design, Volume 2