Another chapter in the continuing saga of teaching 6th grade social studies began this week with the start of a cool simulation game about Mesopotamia called Empires (not to be confused with the videogame of a similar name). For those of you who remember Oregon Trail fondly (as I do), this is along the same lines. Groups of kids become ancient clans who must gain resources, build ziggurats, conquer territory and complete a series of content-specific tasks to win points as they vie to become the Greatest Civilization of the Ancient World. The kids come to class buzzing with excitement and already know more about this time in history than a spin through the textbook and a traditional quiz would have provided.However. Doing one of theses games from the teacher's point of view is like reading the directions to 50 board games all at once. There is a dizzying array of rules and procedures to keep straight and communicate to the kids. Sure, I could play the game without a problem at this point, but instructing a classful of 6th graders to do the same is like herding cats through a Sumerian irrigation system (ie: very, very complicated). And the amount of old-school accutrement that accompanies Empires is truly astounding. Aussie (the other 6th grade humanities teacher) and I have cleaned out the school's supplies of different colored thumb tacks, which represent armies. The kids are buying them at quite a clip and battling like crazy on both sides of the Tigris and Euphrates (represented by maps Aussie and I painstakingly traced and laminated).
It's cool though to see the kids learning so many life lessons alongside the history. I think that's been the most surprising and wonderful thing about teaching social studies for the first time. Learning about past human systems really does help us understand the ones we live in today. Even on the 6th grade level, there are so many concepts that translate into the present. My students understand in a fairly deep way that things like laws everyone understands and a peaceful transfer of power cure many societal ills. (Go Sargon and Hammurabi! And boo to the late Roman emperors...) They know that cultures with deep class divisions don't fare as well as those less rigidly structured (let's take a lesson from that one!). They undersand that conquering your enemies may get them to shut up for awhile but doesn't necessarily mean they go away. And keeping the army well fed and happy is also a plus, if you can swing it.
The Empires simulation brings with it all of those and other lessons. For those of you not familiar with simulation games, they attempt to mimic the conditions of an era of history as much as possible. Students are usually grouped in some way (tribes, clans, covered wagons), then asked to do a series of tasks (ie: fairly typical social studies assignments based on the era of history they are studying), which result in their gaining the resources and points they need to construct a clas
sroom version of that historical time period. For example, in Empires, the 6th grade Babylonians read about the real Babylonians, and write essays, design models, draw murals, etc that represent the real Babs' life and times. With the points they earn for learning so much about the real thing, they can buy thumbtack armies and Post-It note ziggurats to help them conquer little squares on the classroom map and take over the land of other clans, who are busy doing the same thing. They are also learning about tax shelters (map squares with a ziggurat are not subject to the 50% temple tax on all other laminated land parcels), supply and demand (resources are limited and there are specified trading times when they can get what they need); the role of luck and fate (sometimes the best laid plans don't work out and some other team enslaves your thumbtack armies); and the importance of working together (groups who bicker--like governments who bicker--get a lot less accomplished).Today, we had a little talk about the importance of keeping track of the money (unlike in the real world, my students can't go into debt to finance their militaries) and using their resources wisely. Which leads to the last lesson of this week: it's hard to get people to listen to reason when there is money and power to grab. Figuring out how to do this will solve a world of woes, both inside and out of the classroom. I'll let you know if I find an answer, but so far it's not looking good. As the only adult in a world of 12 year olds, I want to be the voice of wisdom, counseling prudence and productivity. But my students nod earnestly and, like organized humans everywhere, have exactly none of it. After all, if my neighbor's thumbtack armies are breathing down my neck, I'm not going to invest in a school for scribes no matter how many points it'll earn me. I'm going to the teacher and asking for more thumbtacks. If that results in an arms race, we'll have yet another lesson to learn. Stay tuned...
4 comments:
Okay, I HAVE to comment on this one since these silly games completely consumed me for part of 5th and 6th grade. I remember 5th grade Oregon Trail with considerable bitterness. I didn't really start sprinting in that race until the last week and lost the race by one dot on the map. (Were you on my team in that game?) While I learned a little about pioneer life, the larger lesson that stuck was what commitment to winning means. Do you remember the other sim game before Oregon trail--the conquest of the New World one? Ms Sawaski canceled it after a couple days because we (the entire class) were getting too riled up and misbehaving.
The next year the South America-based exercise not even remotely competitive. The race was over before any of the kids (except maybe you and I and a couple other veterans of Oregon Trail) knew it had started. Mrs. Bachman was quite annoyed with me (as she often was). We were the KRABS, an acronym for Kristen Rebecca (McA), Allison (Crowe), Brian (Me) and Son (Ngo). So I guess you weren't on that time with me. I spent an entire weekend in the Santa Barbara library doing research and then building stucff. Dioramas, reports, educational projects up the ying yang. The little crab icon circumnavigated the ontinent on Monday of the second week of a planned four-week exercise. :) :) :)
I still like simulation games like Civilization. Good ones balance militarism with empire building. Ultimately men with sharp sticks trained in slave-built barracks will conquer more genteel civilizations--unless geography grants the enlightened ones enough space and natural protection to buy time and leverage libraries (probably also slave-built) into superior military technology so they can spread the enlightenment (and free their slaves after a couple millenia when the economy advances to a point when they are no longer economical).
Do let us know how it goes. Will you have any obsessive competitors who won't rest until the map is covered with their thumbtacks?
I dont know where you all went to 6th grade, but it wasnt at my school, though Mr. Cooper did have a surfboard behind his desk. Have you played Settlers of Catan? I want to be in your SS class this week!
I have not yet had the honor of teaching a BrianB, though I'm constantly on the look out--and am looking forward to it. I do remember the Oregon Trail clincher, but don't recall which group I was in. The only thing I remember about that South America game is the names of all the countries and their capitals (which I still know to this day).
So far, the kids have not been overly competitive, though some are making non-strategic decisions based on the sheer ability to conquer in and of itself. This deals psychological blows on their opponents but doesn't result in much of an advantage. For example, in one class there has been a rash of trying to take over other teams' home bases, which makes no strategic sense at this stage in the game. As a teacher, I may need to encourage more self-interested thinking (do you really need more slaves when you own hardly any land?). In the other class, I had to discourage kids from forming alliances--which is a great impulse, but would cause the game to totally collapse. I'd like to take some credit for the kids' urge to band together to improve their chances of success, but I think they learned it by watching "Survivor."
Can you imagine how the outcome of Oregon Trail would have been different if we had viewed a steady diet of reality TV? I can't imagine how cranky Ms. Sawaski or Mrs. Bachman would have become...
It's too bad the mechanics won't accomodate alliances, both financial and military--that's where these games actually start to get fun.
--As for crankiness, Mrs Bachman was cranky to begin with any time ChrisF and I were in the same room. When we weren't fighting with each other, we were conspiring to show her up. It's amazing Mrs. Sawaski stayed as cool as she did.
I saw her a couple years ago. She was the principal at Carp Jr HS, and then worked with my brother-in-law as an administrator in the SB school district. It was cool catching up with her.
Nothing reminds you how much you've grown (in all ways) so much as going back to your childhood haunts or meeting your old teachers. Everything seems so small.
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