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Agriculture Thought Experiment

Jim Jaeger
Jim Jaeger 5 months ago

In Professor David Christian's (a personal hero of mine!) book "This Fleeting World", he describes an acceleration zone during the agrarian era. The thought experiment he provides is to ask students to consider their first steps after a disaster. No stores, no communication or transportation. The only sustenance is what is found in the woods or fields. Students are asked what they would do?  What would/could you eat safely?  How would you prepare it? Where or how would you start growing food? 

My hope for next school year (already making plans!) is to set this up in the form of a simulation. The game will have rounds and students will have a number of people to maintain.  Each person will need to be engaged in an activity per round.  I will add some fate cards and the team that generates the most units of food via farming or foraging will emerge victorious.

Have you tried anything like this in your setting?

Have a wonderful holiday season everyone!

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  • Laura Massa
    Laura Massa 5 months ago

    Jim Jaeger I've never tried a simulation like this, so I'm curious about how you plan to set up the stages of the game. Will you be using AI to assist you?

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  • Adriane Musacchio
    Adriane Musacchio 5 months ago

    This sounds like a really great activity, Jim! The only somewhat similar activity I have ever tried is the activity where students need to problem solve 3 materials and a game plan if they were to be dropped stranded island. I leave it up to them if their group goal is to escape the island or set up camp to survive on the island from there on out. 

    I like the activity you posted above because it has students work on problem solving shoes, while having them step into the shoes of those from the agricultural revolution. Will definitely bookmark this for when I get to the Agriculture threshold in BHP! 

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  • Drew Fortune
    Drew Fortune 5 months ago

    I’ve tried something similar. I used scenario cards with brief disaster setups, nothing too grim, but enough to get students thinking. Their task was to respond, figuring out how to survive, adapt, or even thrive.

    It worked as a quick icebreaker and connected nicely with course content. It sparked curiosity and set the tone for the semester: thinking critically, working together, and diving into big questions.

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  • Meaghan Mihalic
    Meaghan Mihalic 5 months ago

    I've done something similar to this as an intro to civilizations. I call it Surviving the Agricultural Revolution:

    1. Each group gets a set of scenario cards

    2. Work through to generate solutions

    3. Gallery walk to see other groups (all groups have different scenarios)

    4. Go through the solutions to show what actually happened in certain places.

    Cards are linked if you would like to take a look! Let me know if you want more details Jim Jaeger 

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  • Jim Jaeger
    Jim Jaeger 5 months ago in reply to Drew Fortune

    Drew Fortune I like this as a quicker activity.  I think I probably have gone too far with this activity in the past.

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  • Jim Jaeger
    Jim Jaeger 5 months ago in reply to Laura Massa

    Laura Massa  In the past, I have used rounds and fate cards. Student teams could develop a plan for the round, but then they would draw a fate card.  or example, they planned to really focus on farming this round, but the fate card added an intense wave of weather stopping them from farming and making the round not as profitable for the team. LOL

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  • Jim Jaeger
    Jim Jaeger 5 months ago in reply to Adriane Musacchio

    Adriane Musacchio This is a great idea as well!  

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  • Jim Jaeger
    Jim Jaeger 5 months ago in reply to Meaghan Mihalic

    Meaghan Mihalic  Thank you for the linked document!  I love the different scenarios and I have used fate cards in a similar fashion to disrupt the everyday plans of my teams attempting to survive in a New World.

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  • Meaghan Mihalic
    Meaghan Mihalic 5 months ago in reply to Jim Jaeger

    Sure thing! Hope to hear how your version goes.

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