By Amita Ramcharan
The bustling noise of students filled the classroom as they walked around trying to trade resources, like gold, silk and paper. Students talked over each other to see who could get the best trade offer. After a couple minutes their teacher shouted over the class to get students back to their “empires.”
Advanced Placement World History classes played a simulation game about the Silk Road trade route on Wednesday and Thursday block periods. Students were placed in groups labeled as each “empire” and simulated trading with other “empires” while keeping track of their resources.
Students were also separated into four roles: merchant, diplomat, khanate (king) or adviser. The groups took 10 minutes each round to trade and form alliances with the other groups. Then, they took a couple of minutes to figure out if they could purchase anything or if they could attack another group.