Silk Road Simulation

Hi Philip Gerhardt ! For the initial setup, I put a disease card in each group's stack of cards. They deal these out within their group for the first round. 

Once students start to trade between groups, the transmission of disease can happen in different ways depending on the group. Some students start to figure out that they can slip the disease card in with other goods they are trading. Some will even bravely accept the consequences and intentionally accept the disease cards. I just keep an eye out and remind students that there can be no funny business (putting the card in someone's hoodie, dropping the card and running away, etc.). Disguising the disease card among other goods works well to illustrate the unintended consequences of trade. 

While not a script per se, I can share the slide deck I use with the simulation. 

I tried a similar idea for the Disease cards.  I think this year I will make them the same color cardstock as the other cards.  Thank you for sharing your slide deck... I might add a lil of what you said to the PowerPoint I created.  Thanks for the help!

Hi  Philip Gerhardt  I have this slidedeck if you'd like to make a copy for your own files. The last slide just says "wrapping it up" and I use that as a Q&A / debrief of the simulation. You'll notice that in between each of the three rounds, I keep redirecting the students back to their ultimate goal of collecting as many items (tech, beliefs & goods) from outside of their zone. 

When we get to the 2nd & 3rd round cards ... I make sure that I connect with each group to point out their specific instructions (i.e. pay attention if it says that you'll be penalized or rewarded for certain actions)

Silk Road Simulation deck

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

Also very helpful, thanks!

Philip Gerhardt  I agree it's a difficult activity to execute. I think really it's all about structuring it in a way that is simplified and getting students to really think about the zones of exchange. 

These are slides that I completely stole from the very masterful ERIN CUNNINGHAM  Perhaps this helps you on your way! 

Thanks for the endorsement, Adam Esrig !

We just did this activity a few weeks ago. One mental note I made for next year regarding the disease cards is that some kids walked away thinking that disease was spread on purpose for nefarious reasons because they were really hung up on the competition and points part of the activity. I suppose biological warfare may have been a thing in some parts of Afro-Eurasia at the time but it wasn't really the point of the activity! Furthermore, I had some instances of theft in one class so we had to stop and talk about how theft would be bad for business in the long-run (something that comes up in the Era 4 DBQ!). I think I'll take that approach regarding the disease cards in the future--like you don't want to intentionally hurt your trading partners because it won't be good for you in the end either.

Thanks to all who have provided suggestions.  I plan to finish my version of this simulation in a couple days... I'll share it out with everyone when it is done!

DOC

Hi All!

Here's what I decided to do based on the original activity directions, your suggestions, and my own ideas.  Hope people find it helpful!

Looks great Philip Gerhardt . I like that you've shown what each trade area looks like and the resources they start with. I find that making slides for activities like this one help me visualize the process and "rehearse" before trying it out with students.