Teacher Notes

Description

In this board game about life during early industrialization, students encounter real historical events and deal with real technological opportunities of the period. The game can be played by up to eight students in each group and can end in one of three ways: one player finishes, all players finish, or the class period is over. In addition to addressing historical topics and technology issues, the game calls for math skills needed to figure percentages and to perform addition and subtraction.

Duration (approximate): minimum 1 class period

Learning Outcomes and Skills

1. Students learn how technology developed during the period of early industrialization.

2. Students understand how industrialization was related to other historical events of the period.

3. Students realize that everyone faced tremendous risks (both economic and physical), but not everyone had an equal chance to succeed.

4. Students understand that individual success often involved more than hard work; a person's economic and educational background were more important, and luck was a significant factor.

5. Students practice math skills such as figuring percentages, addition, and subtraction.
   

What You Will Need

For each group of eight students, a complete game set is needed. Each Student Activity Packet includes:

1 gameboard
1 deck of 1806 IDENTITY CARDS
1 die
8 player tokens
8 mill tokens
Copies of Player Rules and Score Sheets (with Glossary)

*In addition, players will need pencils and scratch paper or calculators for their calculations.

Additional Information

As follow-up, the attached special explanation sheet and discussion questions could be used as a handout to talk about how life and technology were different from the game and how the events portrayed relate to life today.

We have also included more detailed information about each game block to help you respond to student questions.

Game Board

On the image below, click in a quarter to view the full-size image. (200kb each)

Identity Cards:


There are two pages of four Identity cards each. Click on a page to see the characters. These can be downloaded, printed, and cut out.

Alexander, Mary, Samuel, Michael

James, Robert, Eleanor, Henry

Score Sheet

Click to view an image of the Score Sheet that can be saved and printed. (Score sheet courtesy of Carlita Kosty, Rayburn Middle School, San Antonio, TX.)

Game Rules:

Game rules are included in the Student Activity Packet