Hemlock Path

Sim Sweatshop

Wow this game was powerful.  You start out in a sweatshop making shoes and the goal is to make 3 shoes in a day.  Sounds pretty simple right?  No, because just like in real life you run out of energy and lose focus so it's harder to put the shoes together. And how does one get energy back you may ask?  Of course by buying food.  But how do I buy food if I can't make the shoes because I'm hungry.  Exactly, that is exactly what this games is trying to convey.  Sweatshops are real and still exist.  The students in your class may not know this but it is very true.  In one of my post I talked about the experience that we can take away from playing games and this is a great example of that.  I don't want my students to learn about sweatshops by making them work in one, so this is a close second.  Students will learn that these places exist and other children have this kind of life.  I can see this sparking an interest in a few students wanting to help and this is how we create change.  We show our students what is out there in a controlled environment and see what they do.  I love the idea of this game and the potential impact it could have in a student's life.

McDonald's Game

This game is really hard but I feel that it has tools to help develop micromanagement skills and maybe get students interested in business.  There are parts of the game that I feel may make kids upset, like bulldozing an indigenous people's house down for more land to produce more, or killing cows in an inhumane way.  This may make students begin to wonder about how to do business that isn't harmful to those around it.  I feel this would be a great game to lead into a discussion on morals, business,  community, and many other topics that students may have not considered.  This could open up many avenues of thought for students and they may take it another route but that is ok because they have that intellectual freedom to take what they know and use it how they want.  I can see myself using this in a social studies class but for Jr High students. It might be a bit much for any students younger than that.