Essential Questions:

1. What is integral to the formation of a functioning society?

2. How do the systems humans put in place impact the formation of a society?

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Civilization Game (or Civ. Game) is a 9th grade-wide game that asks students to create their own government structure in groups of six. They are sent to an exoplanet that could, theoretically, host human life and are tasked to survive and thrive on their new planet. In their groups they are to run their government structure authentically while responding to an ever-changing game, with some groups upgrading their technology to be able to travel and communicate with other groups, deal with natural and societal issues better, and going to war with one another with advantages/disadvantages. 

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To start we challenged students to think about what makes a civilization successful? We explored ancient civilizations, including discussing how the world "civilization" is ethnocentric, and what lead to them succeeding as early civilizations. In order to have their upgrades approved as they moved up their "tier," they had to create what their technology will look like and how it functions, and gain approval from the physics teacher that it could work. No act or decision is merely made by stating it will be done, instead the students must write the proper documentation (ex.: war declaration) and have it signed by one of their teachers in order to make these official.

Once the game launched, the students played the game for three weeks. In the context of the game, the teachers played the role of the Human Survival Bureau (HSB), who managed the civilizations and the rules of the game. As the HSB, we gave the students the game tokens they had to use for materials such as food, water, oxygen, and other materials such as rare minerals, common minerals, and the ability to summon an HSB member to help the civilization in a feasible manner. These tokens were used to keep their population alive, trade, barter, and wage war for. Throughout these weeks, we ran into a few issues- as is the nature of project based learning- including the functions of war, and dealing with a rebellion against the teachers.

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For exhibition the visitors are the ones who, upon reviewing all the documents and hearing from the students about their civilizations, are voting on the civilization they found to be most successful.

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If I Were To Do Civ. Game Again:

• I would add more rules to make the game tighter and more cohesive

  • Ex.: ​In order to wage war, payment is required to acquire HSB signature

• Change the amount of signatures needed by teachers

• Have designated teachers for certain acts (ex.: an HSB member who signs treaties)