Civ Lab

CIVLAB Archive:  2013-2014 School year

I am no longer Using Civ Lab to teach US Concepts, due to the nature of the program I am currently teaching in.  I am going to leave this page up as a resource for anyone who would like to know more about Civ Lab.  I do miss using it and interacting with the other teachers who used to participate.  Special Thanks to the Parry Brothers who included me when they didn't have to.   

Here are some links to some of my posts that detail my thoughts on gamification and some of the lessons I used to do.  If you have any questions about Civ Lab and what I used to do, please, don't hesitate to contact me. 

Gamification Collection: 

Gamification:  Good or Bad?  I say Good!

Schwarten’s 5 Principles of Gamification

How to Gamify Reviewing: Ms. Kinkoph Style (This is a twist on Jeopardy, deal or no deal, and something  made up)

My First Steps as a Gaming Teacher 

Civ Lab:

1st Steps to Civ Lab

 Teaching the House of Burgesses/Town Hall Meeting Using Civilization IV

 Civ Lab:  The Mother Country, Early Colonial Issues, and Mercantilism 

Civ Lab:  The Road to Revolution

What is Civ Lab?

Civ Lab is the use of traditional classroom methods of teaching fused with modern day technology to bring social studies concepts to life. Each class is a state and is competing against my other classes, classes in Washington County, and classes in Montgomery county. The partnership between the three teachers makes the game useful and extremely unpredictable when attempting to teach Soc St concepts. In my US history class the simulation has been used to teach concepts from the Amer Revolution all the way up until reconstruction. The simulation is also incredibly useful to teach principles of American Government, since the students model state and local govts, colonial rule, confederate, and federal govt. as they make decisions. This part of the simulation allows the students to really try on the concepts that we teach and put them into practice, which engenders critical thinking/problem solving skills, etc.

I would like to personally thank my partner teachers for allowing me to be a part of this ever growing experiment. It really has been a lot of fun for everyone and has revolutionized the way I teach. Maybe one of these years one of my classes will actually win... :)

This page will record the election results, interactions, and the different bills that were passed by congress.

____________________________________________________________________
Laws that were passed:
11/25/14: Focus on military and expanding
11/25/14: Attack Natives as much as we want

Remember:  All states must agree for national laws to be passed.

House of Reps Laws Being Processed:

Law: Introduced 12/12/14	Yes	No
No one is allowed to help natives.  If they do they are to be put to death.	0	10
No one is allowed to trade with natives.  If they do they die.	0	10
Allowed to give money to other states if asked, but the borrower will have to pay it back.	9	1
You can give military units to other states if asked.	6	3

Senate Laws being Processed:

	Yes	No
Make Dueling Legal across the nation 1/22/15: Introduced by Joe Mass	1	1

Confederate Congress:  (Disbanded 12-12-14)

Law: Introduced 11/24/14	Yes	No
Attack Natives as much as we want	5	0
Focus on military and expanding	5	0
Chinchillaism = state religion:	2	2
People that rebel are to be hanged	2	2
Slavery allowed in the whole nation	1	4
Send Message to Greenland to remove them from NA lands (Jackie said no as a form of protest against the imprisonment of a citizen named Sam for expressing the opinion that Greenland was not that bad)	4	1

American Religions Created By Colony (Members can be cross colony)
Mass	1.       $5 Footlongism	1
	2.       SJKI	7
	3.       Powerism	6
New York	4.        Chinchillaism	12
	5.       Chicken N Watermellism (Wear Jordans to Church)	4
	4. Carterism	1
Maryland
Virginia
Georgia

Local Laws on the Books of the 5 colonies:

Mass	1.        Freedom of Religion 2.       Slavery Illegal 3.    We hereby resolve to defeat and kill      the natives someday.  9-16-14 4.  Dueling = Legal to settle differences.  1/22/15
New York	1.        Freedom of Religion/Separation of Church and State 2.       Slavery Legal 3.       Chinchillaism Founded 9-5-2014. (Religion) 4.  We hearby resolve to spread the 3 religions that were birthed in the Colony of New York to as many lands as possible to save the souls of the world.
Maryland	1.        Freedom of Religion/Separation of Church and State 2.       Slavery Legal
Virginia
Georgia	1.        Freedom of Religion/Separation of Church and State 2.       Slavery Illegal ( Struck Down 10/1/14) 3.  Slavery Legal:  Only the natives in the game are allowed to be slaves (10/1/14)