Silk Road:
In addition to sharing the OER Content and the Silk Road trading simulation, I created a plan to help my students understand the desire for trade along the Silk Road. I set up six pods of desks with three groups on each side of the classroom. Each pod was given a commodity (candy, beef sticks, comic books, etc.). Each group appointed a trader who could visit the groups, and the rest of the students placed their orders. It was up to the traders to negotiate trades to ensure each student received what they wanted.
Pods three and four had a fairly easy trading relationship since they could trade directly. However, if pod 6 needed to get a commodity from pod 1, there had to be a series of trades in between to get the item from one side of the classroom (world) to the other. Each student had a chance to be a trader as the rounds continued.
During the last round, a roll of a die allowed one group to travel via the ocean directly to the pod they needed to go to. With mostly happy students, we then moved on to the next steps of ocean exploration and then the Columbian Exchange. It was a pricey lesson, but one that I really thought worked.
Any other ideas out there that are similar?
