This week, students in Grade 6 participated in a simulation as part of their Unit of Inquiry for How We Organize Ourselves. The simulation asked groups of students to imagine that they were a family living in the Middle East 6,000 years ago. As hard working farmers, they needed to produce 20 units of wheat just to survive the year.
After a great harvest, they find themselves (for the first time) with a surplus of food. Now, they have a choice. They could store that surplus in case of drought in the coming year, they could invest that surplus in the production of tools, which would increase their yearly production, or they could invest it in the creation of woollen clothing or mud brick housing which would improve their quality of life.
The object of the game was to raise their standard of living to the point where they had built up a surplus of 20 units of wheat, had 10 woollen garments, and a mud brick house. We had 2 groups who managed to avoid the pitfalls of drought and infestation to reach the raised standard of living first.
Next week, we are going to look at how this new standard of living changed the lives of our first farmers, and brought us to the doorstep of civilization.
