Mini-Course: Simulations in the Social Studies Classroom
Navigable Links:
- ETAP 623 Spring 2023 (Zhang)
Overview and Purpose
Social Studies is often demonized for its stereotype of just simply recalling dates and facts, however, social studies is the study of how people were dealt with a situation and how they handled those situations. History is a tale of human enduring and human nature. Nothing in history is necessarily new - just new names, places, and at a different time. However, persecution, religious strife, human struggling and progress have been occurring events since the dawn of man. Many history events and ideas can be recreated by putting students through significantly toned down, but comparable experiences that allow the students to make connections to what they are doing today with what people were going through hundreds of years ago. How can you place students into the shoes of their past contemporaries? Classroom simulations.
Simulations are research backed to create a more engaging and effective classroom learning environment.
That is the goal of this mini-course. Participants of this mini-course will learn
1) What classroom simulations look like
2) Why classroom simulations are important
3) How to identify characteristics of a strong and weak simulation and
4) How to create their own classroom simulations from scratch
In this course, participants will read about simulations, analyze already created simulations to identify strengths and weaknesses, and then put it all together to create their own classroom simulation. Click on the links provided under the "Course Units" to begin learning about simulations in the classroom.
Needs Assessment
The Nature of What is to be Learned: Participants taking this mini-course will learn how to create a difficult lesson for any classroom - the classroom simulation. Creating your own simulation is a difficult thing to do for teachers and often requires a teacher to buy classroom simulations online. However, if a teacher can reframe their mind and think about what they are trying to teach a little differently, then creating simulations becomes easier.
About the Learners: In this mini-course the learners are educators, but the beneficiaries are both the educators and the students. The teachers participating in this mini-course are both new and experienced teachers, with specific examples and connections in this mini-course being made towards social studies, that are looking for new, engaging strategies for their classroom.
Existing Efforts to Address this Gap: While there is significant research out there to support the idea that simulations to enhance learning is effective, there is very little guidance out there in order to help teachers create simulations. Many are stuck to put in multiple hours to create some simulation on their own or just purchase some from the internet. This mini-course hopes to be a practical way for teachers to re-think the creation of simulations so that they could apply it to any unit they are teaching.
Intent Statement: In sum, this mini-course will help educators in re-thinking the process of creating classroom simulations while be equipped with the skills that will help them what makes a classroom simulation effective or ineffective.
Performance Objectives
After completing this mini-course, participants will be able to
1) Understand what a classroom simulation is and explain why simulations are an important aspect of a high engaging, high achieving classroom
2) Identify key characteristics about a simulation and identify potential strengths and weaknesses in a simulation.
3) Reflect and analyze on simulations and be able to made adjustments in order to improve those simulations
4) Create their own simulations for any unit in their curriculum
Course Units
This mini-course includes the following units. Click the title of a unit to go to its page.
Unit 1: Classroom Simulations and Their Importance
After this unit, participants will better understand what a classroom simulation is and the research backed data as to why simulations are an important piece to an effective, engaging classroom.
Unit 2: What Makes an Effective Simulation?
After this unit, students will understand the mental process that one should consider when creating a simulation and be given practical tips and tricks to create an effective simulation while also being shown what are common pitfalls in a simulation.
Participants will also be shown examples of simulations and have to analyze what specifically makes those simulations effective or ineffective.
Unit 3: Improving Upon Simulations
After this unit, participants will have practiced with going through and identifying key strengths and weaknesses of example simulations. In this unit, students will have the opportunity to take those lessons and make it their own by adding in their own improvements and pieces. This unit provides some modeling and exampling for participants to take into their final creation piece.
Unit 4: Creating your own simulation
After this unit, participants will now have created their own simulation lesson plan using what has been learned in previous lessons. Participants are not limited in any capacity as an effective simulation can be seen in many different shapes and sizes. The only constraints are that the simulation are geared toward their standards and objectives.