Using Civilization 4 in the geography classroom

Antilogic said:

That doesn't happen already?

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And that justifies making things even worse by using a computer game as a teaching tool?

First of all, this is a geography class, not history so we are not concerned with confusing real history with what happens in the game. Second, this is designed as another method of teaching concepts of resources and development. We will not spend our entire semester doing this either. Our plan is to be on the game a total of 4 days out of 42.

This scenario is specific to resource development. Some of the big questions we look at throughout our unit on development include:

• Why does development vary among countries?
• Why do less developed countries face obstacles to development?
• How does uneven distribution of resources affect development and trade?

In addition, we examine these questions regarding resources:

• Why are resources being depleted?
• Why are resources reusable?
• Why can resources be conserved?

I agree with a previous post by Kid R regarding an experiential exercise that involves movement in the classroom. Those types of activities are valuable as are simulations on a computer like C4. We do routinely get them up and moving to demonstrate these concepts. Those types of activities have drawbacks too. Using pens and paper as resources are adequate metaphors to get kids thinking about resources but they are not very specific to the idea and it is very difficult to quantify those results. Once the students have learned the concepts through the assigned readings, lecture and discussions, activities in class and, sometimes, appropriate video presentations then it is time to apply these concepts if possible. One possible application is a simulation. C4 fits this nicely because of its adaptability.

I do appreciate all of these comments. I have been working on this idea for several years as a concept and it will be implemented this Spring.

If anyone would like to try out the scenario and make suggestions on game design I would appreciate that even more. I am new to this and would welcome suggestions from those who know more about it than me.

Thanks for your time.

Steve

Albeit not perfect since it is a game, I have seen through years of playing that Civ4 has many aspects that reflect well to history. Here is a list:

1) Isolation starts tend to let some civs backwards since they can be part of technological diffusion. In RL, bantu populations, aborigines and to an extent the New World suffered strong setbacks because these populations didn't benefit as much as classical old world nations like the mediterranean nations (Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia civs, etc.)

2) Fertility of soils is almighty important. For a radical comparison, Nubia vs Egypt. Both were by the Nile, but Nubia didn't have the great farm-able lands of Lower Egypt. They had to stick with the older means, which is Animal Husbandry. And the recession of the few farmable lands let the culture to die. In Civ4, food is king. A poor start without much food resource or worse, mainly plain tiles will lead, at least for the AI, to fall back compared to nations having plenty of food.

3) Resources. Indeed, crossing with the last point, bonuses are a really important part of Civ4. Some experiments were done without a single resources on a map in Civ4 and it led to extreme backwardness.

4) Trade routes can be a big part of the economy. Isolationists like Tokugawa in the game have bigger problems to maintain a steady race to the "exchangists" like Mansa. Both in tech diffusion, resources, trade routes, etc., isolationists suffer.

5) War is knowledge bringer. Since cities are captured and changed of owner, the native population will benefit of new techniques. Though some mods enforce the fact war is knowledge bringer. Indeed, in real history, war is a competition between nations and thus a stimulus of tech advancements.

A few people had asked for an update on how this went so here you go. We played the game twice this week. Day one was about learning the game. They all played the tutorial and then wrote some guided reflections on what they learned and how they could connect it to the Geography class. Day two, which was at the end of a unit on resources and their impact on development, they played the scenario I posted previously, with a few minor tweaks. Almost all of them could complete the 100 turn game well within the 90 minute class period and the accompanying reflection. In addition to the original reflection questions, they were required to record the end game demographics. Those results are here:

https://sites.google.com/a/weldre4.k12.co.us/mr-cline-s-world-geography/

The scenario did accomplish the objective of demonstrating how resources aid in development. We have spent a considerable amount of time in class learning about the UN Human Development Index and the Millennium Development Goals. The demographics information in Civ 4 lines up with several of those factors. Next class we will debrief and process these results.

If any educators out there read this and would like some guidance in this area please contact me. I would be happy to give you my thoughts as well as share all of the work that I have done on this.

Thanks for all of your feedback in this thread. Next month we will tackle the role of agriculture in stabilizing economies and preventing conflict.

Steve

Willem said:

And that justifies making things even worse by using a computer game as a teaching tool?

Click to expand...

If it excites students and gets them reading real stuff, especially stuff that is more advanced/correct than whatever the Texas School Board whitewashes, then it may have the opposite effect.



I haven't had the chance to read the summary yet, Steve. It's an interesting experiment for a geography class.

Manco Capac said:

Albeit not perfect since it is a game, I have seen through years of playing that Civ4 has many aspects that reflect well to history. Here is a list:

1) Isolation starts tend to let some civs backwards since they can be part of technological diffusion. In RL, bantu populations, aborigines and to an extent the New World suffered strong setbacks because these populations didn't benefit as much as classical old world nations like the mediterranean nations (Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia civs, etc.)

2) Fertility of soils is almighty important. For a radical comparison, Nubia vs Egypt. Both were by the Nile, but Nubia didn't have the great farm-able lands of Lower Egypt. They had to stick with the older means, which is Animal Husbandry. And the recession of the few farmable lands let the culture to die. In Civ4, food is king. A poor start without much food resource or worse, mainly plain tiles will lead, at least for the AI, to fall back compared to nations having plenty of food.

3) Resources. Indeed, crossing with the last point, bonuses are a really important part of Civ4. Some experiments were done without a single resources on a map in Civ4 and it led to extreme backwardness.

4) Trade routes can be a big part of the economy. Isolationists like Tokugawa in the game have bigger problems to maintain a steady race to the "exchangists" like Mansa. Both in tech diffusion, resources, trade routes, etc., isolationists suffer.

5) War is knowledge bringer. Since cities are captured and changed of owner, the native population will benefit of new techniques. Though some mods enforce the fact war is knowledge bringer. Indeed, in real history, war is a competition between nations and thus a stimulus of tech advancements.

Click to expand...

yes that, I love civ4 simply because how much it has taught me about the world that we live in, though not a perfect understanding. too bad school don't teach these.

one thing I don't understand is wth is a 'cultural victory'?

I remain skeptical in regard to this project. Finding methods of teaching which raise the intrinsic motivation of the students is one thing. Using the variables that a computer game uses in representing the world to teach the kids about the real world is another.
While Civ 4 can no doubt raise interest in human history and can be educational on a superficial level, it can in no way capture the complexities of the world's systems. Worse, it can distort the students' views. Saying that inaccurate historical aspects of the game don't matter since it is used in a geography class is a dangerous approach.

There are plenty of excellent ways to get students interested in a topic which work without all these negative effects, like economy games, group projects etc. The students can deal with real systems with real numbers and real situations, and thereby gain much more precise and relevant knowledge of the topic. Even if we grant that using Civ 4 raises the student's motivation (and I am not at all sure that it does, compared to other innovative teaching methods), I would evaluate the resulting imprecision and artificiality to negatively outweigh the gains by far. I can't help but think that the idea, while well intended, did not take enough into account what is most important in school lessons, that the kids gain an accurate knowledge of how the world works.

That all aside, since you have decided to go with the project (and neglect my warnings!), I wish you the best of luck with it. I hope that my concerns are overstated. At the very least, you will have some enjoyable lessons.

Once upon a time, I was a high school student.
My Chemistry teacher took the time to create an exercise. The premise was that a space expedition had traveled to a distant galaxy with unknown elements. In order to find it's way back to Earth they had to first make some sense of the new elements and their chemistry, so as to be able to make fuel or something. There was a skeleton of a periodic table ( similar to the real one, but simpler ), and a number of elements with incomplete data. Nothing was real, it was all unknown abstractions and names.

But the multi-week assignment forced us to experiment( it would take much less time with calculators ) To analyze the numbers and graph them, until we started to find relationships.

When it was over we looked at the periodic table differently. The organization made much more sense.


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I think the game could do a great job of demonstrating geographical advantage/handicap. As a trade broker between continents, having metal, having horses on plains, or having forests & grasslands instead of jungles or deserts. Having mountains as a barrier.

Particularly if it's followed up by looking at real maps of real places at different points in history and analyzing them.

We Civ Fanatics do that without even being aware of it.

This is awesome!

I want to learn everything about your project! I am currently running a unit where we use Civ4 in Social Science and English over a 4 week period with my students. This is the second time I run this unit, and I have been hungering for other educators to discuss experiences with.

I have written extensively about our project on www.NGVCivilization.wordpress.com, and my students are also blogging at www.Learningwithcivilization.wordpress.com.

If you´re willing to share, I would like to read every single lesson plan and evaluation related to your project. If you are interested, I have no problem extending the same courtesy.

If you would also tip of your students to our class blog, I would be pleased to bits. A central aspect to this project is that I want my students to write for a genuine and interested audience. I believe your students may fall into that category.

Please find my contact information on the blog. I would be delighted for the opportunity to swap stories with you.

I appreciate all of your responses. It has been a busy semester and I have not had a chance to look at this thread for a while. We are wrapping up with our last time in the lab next week. Students will specifically be playing a game in Asia and focusing on the role of industrialization in the modern world.

As I stated before, this is not an attempt to teach history. I do teach US History but my main focus is geography. If there are any educators who would like all of the lesson materials from this year and the proposed materials for next year, please contact me. My email is steve.cline@weldre4.k12.co.us. I am very interested in learning from the experiences of other educators in geography. After our next round of lessons in the fall I plan to publish these ideas in a journal specializing in geography education and I would like feedback from others who have tried out this specific set of lessons.

Thanks again for all you help.

Steve

Steve, it's a bad idea to post your email in a public forum. It would be better to solicit private messages in this forum instead.

Just a thought.