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The Urban Game

Ashley Hartman

I have to say, the Urbanization Game is one of my favorite lessons of the year! This hands-on activity brings the Industrial Revolution to life like nothing else. We start in the peaceful year 1700, with students setting up a small village—complete with a river, bridge, church, and lots of trees. It’s a beautiful, pre-industrial scene that doesn’t last long!

As we fast-forward through the decades, students add coal mines, factories, tenements, and crowded streets. By 1850, their quiet village has transformed into a bustling, polluted industrial city. They see firsthand how urban growth changed everything, from living conditions to social structures.

Here’s why I love it:

  1. Students can see and feel the impact of urbanization.
  2. It opens up great discussions about how industrialization shaped society.
  3. It’s fun, interactive, and students come away with a deeper understanding.

Do you already do this activity? I would love to hear how you implement it in your classes! 

Here are a few of the slides that I use to facilitate this game and student examples:

Example Slides and Student Work

  •   -- yes! My students LOVE the urbanization game (although they don't like how I speed my pace between rounds as we get closer to the end of the simulation). 

    Those who've played Sim City or Catan will definitely pick up early on how cities can be planned, and you can always show this process with historical street maps to make it more real. 

  • in reply to Gwen Duralek

    These historical street maps are awesome! I am going to incorporate them into this lesson next year. 

  • Ashley Hartman said:
    Students can see and feel the impact of urbanization.

    I couldn’t agree with you more! I love this activity! Not only isn’t visual, but like you said, students see and feel the impact of urbanization. After this activity, my class and I always engage in a post-activity discussion. I’ll always remember what one of my students’ shared in one of these discussions. It was something like … I was so excited to add more homes, and cities, and things we consider to be essential and fun… but I felt so bad every time I had to erase a tree! 

  • I used this game a few years ago and my students loved it. It takes a few class periods, but the students really are engaged the entire time! 

  • Every year, when I have students do their surveys for end of the semester feedback, this activity always makes it to the top of the list. My students love it. Afterwards, we watch North and South, the TV Mini series from 2004. The students can see the cities that they diagramed in the movie. The show brings the history to life.