This inquiry engages third graders in expanding their understandings of our increasingly interconnected world. The compelling question “Is sharing and trading across cultures always a good thing?” is intellectually respectful of third graders who have personal experience with sharing and trading and typically have been told that sharing and trading are positive ways to interact. This inquiry explores that assumption in ways that allow students to engage with several social studies disciplines as students uncover political, economic, and social connections across cultures and analyze the implic