Name: ________________________________ Date: ________________ Class: __________________
Chapter 4: Geography & History of the Middle East
Internet Activity
©2017 Clairmont Press Page 1 of 3
In this lesson, you will use videos, websites, and other online resources to learn about the Organization
for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its connection to world oil prices and the price of
gasoline. Then, you will use data on OPEC countries’ oil production to create a radar chart using a
spreadsheet program.
Part I: What is OPEC?
Read the text on OPEC’s main website
(http://bit.ly/opec101) and the summary for their statute
(http://bit.ly/opecstatute), then answer the question below.
1) What is OPEC? _________________________________________________________________
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2) Who are the member countries of OPEC? Bold the ones that were founding members.
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On the OPEC statute page, click on the “Flipbook”, read the first page under “Chapter 1, Article
2”, then answer the questions below.
3) In your own words, what are 3 main goals of OPEC?
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4) If oil prices were to drop, how would it negatively affect OPEC countries?
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Part II: OPEC Growth & Prices
Read this article from Scholastic.com (http://bit.ly/opecfacts) and answer the questions below.
5) What happened during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War (also known as the Yom Kippur War)? How did it
affect oil prices?
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Name: ________________________________ Date: ________________ Class: __________________
Chapter 4: Geography & History of the Middle East
Internet Activity
©2017 Clairmont Press Page 2 of 3
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6) Give an example from the article of a time when the price of oil dropped. Why did the price go
down?
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Part III: Create a Radar Chart
A radar chart (or spider chart) is a way to visually represent data. Using a spreadsheet program, such as
Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or Open Office Calc, follow the directions below to create a visual for
data about OPEC countries and oil.
1) Navigate to page 10 of the 2016 OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin (http://bit.ly/opec2016).
2) Open your spreadsheet program and create a table using the 7 country names listed below as
column headers (start in cell B2).
3) In cell A3, write the first row header Value of exports (million $).
Click in cell A3, drag your mouse down to A5, and choose “Merge
cells”. You may also need to wrap text or drag the row wider to be
able to see all of the words. Continue with the other two row
headers as seen in the picture to the right.
4) From the webpage (http://bit.ly/opec2016), fill in your tables with
the appropriate values. Your finished table should have data in each
cell (3 for each country). Hint: Make sure to merge the cells
underneath each country too you shouldn’t have any blank cells there!
5) To make you data more uniform, in the row labeled “Crude oil exports…”, change the label to
(100 barrels/day) multiply each cell by 10 (add a zero).
6) Once you are done with your data, click in cell A2 and drag down and to the right until you have
selected all your data. Choose “Insert”, and pick “Radar chart” or “Spider chart”.
Name: ________________________________ Date: ________________ Class: __________________
Chapter 4: Geography & History of the Middle East
Internet Activity
©2017 Clairmont Press Page 3 of 3
7) Based on the program you are using, there are different tools to change fonts, colors, sizes,
labels, and other options to make your graph more readable and understandable. Play around
with these options until you are pleased with your completed chart. Hint: If your chart doesn’t
look good, try hiding one or more of the rows and making 1 chart at a time.