Note: Although this post is tailored to BC educators, anyone interested in integrating The Civic Mirror into their course can learn from it.
I’ve been asked this question so many times, I thought I would share my answer with everyone:
“Can you tell me specific strategies that you have used to make The Civic Mirror applicable to BC’s Social Studies 11 course? “
Yes! And let me answer this question by describing how I tailored my course delivery with the program.
As you know, BC’s SS11 course has three big units of study: i) a government unit, ii) a human geography unit, and iii) a 20th century history unit. What I’m about to suggest is – by no means – the only way to implement The Civic Mirror into the course. The program is very, very flexible and you could pepper the CM Events into your course calendar any which way you like.
GOVERNMENT UNIT – I like starting with government because, as my students build their Civic Mirror nation and learn about the various political and economic events that they will run in their own country, we study the related chapters in the text. In other words,
- while they work through the pre-game Constitution events, we study the Constitution Acts and The Charter.
- Before they receive their Hidden Agendas, we study the major political-economic systems and I have them do the survey at politicalcompass.org so they can see where they are within the spectrum, and also so they understand what their Hidden Agenda is really asking them to do in the grand scheme of things.
- When they have their Civic Mirror elections, we study elections and political parties in Canada. When preview the various game-play events (House of Commons, Town Halls, Court) after we’ve read about how they exist in Canada.
- Then, to have some fun and treat it as a reward, I run the Hex Auction the day after the government unit exam.
Once this unit is complete, the stage is set for i) them to run their own simulated nation, and ii) to progress to our next units of study.
WORLD GEOGRAPHY UNIT – I then move into world geography because there are so many great connections. For starters, the poverty cycle is a great fit because The Civic Mirror begins with economic shortages and many students incur family deaths, and many more struggled to make ends meet (while a small few – who owned the powerful hexes – were raking in the dough).
We discuss how their country could be viewed as similar/different to the citizens of the impoverished countries we study in the text, from peoples in the African nations to Canadian first nations. This spills over into a study of national prosperity/poverty indicators, with measurements like literacy, mortality rates, pregnancies, health care, etc.
It’s also great because one of the big challenges with The Civic Mirror (in the first few simulated years) is temporarily sacrificing economic prosperity in order to develop the economy for future years. And some countries (I mean, some classes of students) are never able to accomplish this. Specifically, the game starts with an energy shortage and, if the students wish to overcome that shortage, they have to invest heavily in order to increase their energy supply, which, increases the felt energy crisis in the short term. This fits great with the study of underdeveloped, developing, and developed nations of the world and the economic struggles their up against.It also connects to oil-driven world events.
And, at the end of the unit, I always put them into groups and have them – in big project format – research and decide what country in the real world is most like their own Civic Mirror country. I always find this to be an outstanding activity. The last time we did this the students said,
“Our country is like Nigeria! We have a corrupt government, an energy problem, no health care or education, no welfare programs or social safety net, and our country is run by an oligarchy who’s only interested in making money.”
The Civic Mirror experience also connects to the learning outcomes related to environmental issues because there are hefty consequences if students develop too much of their country’s wilderness. We have lots of fun making HUGE connections to this game element and issues like climate change, soil erosion, etc. So yes, lots of opportunities for outstanding lessons there too.
Note: For the two units above, every third class (on average) was a Civic Mirror event. When I move into history at the half-way mark of the semester, I run the program on Fridays only (or the last day of the week) … which, in other words, works out to every fifth class.
HISTORY UNIT – Because of the sheer amount of information to cover in BC’s SS11 history unit, we ease off on Civic Mirror frequency. There is still enough curricular relevance to continue on with it, however. For example, my students ‘get’ the Great Depression because they have experience as citizens/politicians/business-owners in their own depressed economy (it starts that way) … helping them understand the mircro-economic and social challenges that The Great Depression presented people with. Many students can better empathize with the humiliation felt by the citizens who had to stand in line to get their government assistance cheques because similar activity is happening in their own country.
They ‘get’ the political platforms of various parties over the last 100 years (e.g. CCP, NDP, the Bloq) because they’ve already studied the political spectrum in the first unit, but more because they’ve created and voted for their own political parties, each with its own platform, and all driven by the various Hidden Agendas they’re actively keeping an eye out for. This really helps them – ironically – empathize with the politicians we study throughout history (as evidenced in this video) because they’ve all been debating and deliberating on their own, yet very similar, simulated issues.
Most of all, I find that the history unit makes more sense for them because they can relate to it: they have their own country, constitution, economy, environment, legal system, controversial civic issues (and some cultural), etc. It helps them get it. Their participation in The Civic Mirror gives them an experiential frame of reference from which they can better understand – and appreciate the significance of – the historical events they are being asked to study.
The last two weeks, of course, we drill, drill, drill for that oh-so beautifully standardized exam.
