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Help me love the Urbanization Game...

Erin Cunningham

Hi all!

I'm sure that a lot of my concerns here derive from the time of year but I'm wondering how other people have experienced the Urbanization Game in their classes and what modifications you've made to it.

I've used the game the last few years and I find it really stressful to facilitate! Between the directions, the timing, the reading (which I left out this year...), and the non-stop questions, it's a lot to manage in one class period. I've used these slides that I adapted from  which helps with the pacing but there are lots of questions about what to draw (even though it's on the slide...), how to draw it, where to place things, etc. so that they get it "right" despite my disclaimer that the assessment comes from the reflection post-activity and not the drawing itself, 

Ultimately I get the learning I want--the Industrial Revolution and the resulting urbanization was stressful and rapid for those who experienced it--but it's gotten to the point where I almost want to nix it entirely because I dread facilitating the activity so much. 

So what I'm looking for is what others have done to make the experience enjoyable for students AND teacher Blush

In more positive news, I found this video to show the following day to recap the effects of urbanization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKKzUcqZgMY 

Parents

  • It has to be one of my favorite activities to do with students.  It's fun, it's super engaging, and it covers a lot of content that we can later unpack. That all being said, one other reason I make sure to do it every year is I get to use it as a reference throughout the course.  I make it a competition and the three or four best drawings in each class get hung up on the board on the side of the room.  Whenever we discuss urbanization, class divides, impacting of technology, etc. I simply gesture towards the pictures and it seems like a helpful reminder of what they experience creating the drawings and (hopefully) what they learned about it.  

  • in reply to Todd Nussen

    Totally agree  . I hang mine on our timeline wall, as well. The students are super engaged, although yes there are sighs and students do get frustrated as it carries on. That said, it's all in good fun and they do get it at the end. 

  • in reply to Jeffrey Boles

    Timeline wall - that sounds cool.  Do you hang up student work in chronological progression or something?  

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  • in reply to Todd Nussen

    That's right,  ! I hang up student projects on my wall throughtout the course of the year. This moves in chronological order beginning with an Ancient Civilization project. We then move to a plague project, followed by Renaissance, Columbian Exchange, Enlightenment, French Revolution, Napoloen, Industrial Revolution, WWI, Russian Revolution and typically end with WWII. This is a year-long effort to keep students engage and to support understanding where events fit spatially. I also hold competitions after students have completed their projects to vote on who did the best job in each class. It's funny how into the projects they get. Trying to get their work on the Timeline. I also use those who reach the wall as models for the following year. Some students from pervious years come to check what we're working on and see if their work is still be modeled. All in good fun.

  • in reply to Jeffrey Boles

    Love it!  That's an excellent idea.  I'm marking it down and making it a goal for next year. It seems like it could be an extremely helpful reference for students.  Thanks man.