The Supply Chain in Your Pencil Case: teacher key

How Pencils Are Made, grade 10 edition, written for 10th grade. Cedar, graphite and a world market: where the parts of a pencil come from and why they are changing.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What was Eastern red cedar to pencils from the mid-1800s?
   • The premier pencil wood (answer)
   • A paint
   • A kind of graphite
2. Why should we weigh the slat supplier's warning about cedar labels carefully?
   • It comes from a company that sells cedar slats (answer)
   • It is always false
   • It has no numbers
3. What was China's estimated share of world natural graphite in 2025?
   • 46 percent
   • 82 percent (answer)
   • 13 percent
4. What do the U.S. Geological Survey figures show about pencils and graphite use?
   • Pencils were not among the main uses (answer)
   • Pencils were the main use
   • Pencils used half of it
5. What does extruded mean in the Wopex description?
   • Pushed through a die to shape it (answer)
   • Painted twice
   • Cut by hand

Words

• extruded: pushed through
• supplier: seller
• synthetic: man-made
• anode: battery part