Essential Questions

• How is a city a system? What are some parts of the system and how do those parts work together?

• In the real world, how can a city’s mayor help every kid to get to a school? Why is this important for the city?

• What makes a school bus system efficient?

• What are some constraints in the system, or built-in challenges, in creating a good bus route?

• How do the proportions of money, land, and students (e.g. cost per bus and buses per area) support the design of efficient transport?

• How does the scarcity of available land, zones, and roads affect optimal bus route choices?

Gameplay and Hints

• Mission Objective: At least 200 kids were enrolled

• Bonus Objective 1: More than 250 kids were enrolled

• Bonus Objective 2: Less than 7 stops were placed

• “Where are the school bus stops located in your town?”

• “In what area do you NOT have to place bus stops?”

• “How many students are you serving right now with bus stops?”

• “Is there any room for residential growth?”

• “Is there opportunity for other types of growth?”

• “What kind of actions and resources does it take to place a bus stop? Which resources might start to run out first?”

Closing

• Look at your SimCity in-game map. How many students total are served on bus routes?

• How many bus stops do you have?

• Can you put these two numbers together in a proportion? (Teacher can write on the board:)

• _____________ / _____________ (number of students served) (number of bus stops)

• What does this proportion mean for the number of students served at each bus stop? Do you feel you have a lot of students served per bus stop, or not very many?

• “As you played today, how were you able to get more students to school using just a few bus stops? What strategies did you use that worked, and why?”

• “What resources (e.g. time, money, land) did you use in your building of the bus stops? Which ones ran out the most quickly, or posed the biggest challenge?”

Essential Questions

• What do humans need to survive? How do we meet those needs in today’s modern society where humans live in big cities?

• How can we maximize job growth in the city using game controls, and data available to us?

• What happens as populations grow while land stays scarce (high growth rates)?

• What sort of resources can we use to help support a strong economy in our city? What are main cause and effect

• chains that occur with job creation and these resources (e.g. money, humans, and land)?

Gameplay and Hints

• Mission Objective: At least 900 jobs were created

• Bonus Objective 1: Over 1,000 jobs were created

• Bonus Objective 2: More than 3 minutes (of gameplay) left

• “Where are the commercial and industrial zones located in your town in relation to the other zones?” (system thinking)

• “Do you see any space available on the map to create new zones” (Problem solving)

• “Can you explain what kind of activities happen in Residential / Commercial / Industrial zone?”

• “Have you zoned all the available roads in the city?”

• “What is the difference between jobs and workers? Which one does the game ask you to increase?”

Closing

• “As you played today, were you able to increase the number of jobs? What strategies did you use that worked, and why?”

• “What relationships did you notice between resources (like money, land and workers) and the number of jobs that were created?”

Essential Questions

• What are the pros and cons of using different energy resources to power a big city?

• What are helpful ways to think about and make positive complex systems?

• What is the role of technology and design in reducing human impact on the environment?

• What are the parts of the city system to consider when we think about creating jobs, or keeping the environment healthy? What effect do they have on one another (relationship between variables and scaling)?

• What are the costs and benefits of having a lot of each variable (air quality, power plants, jobs)?

Gameplay and Hints

• Mission Objective: AQI (Air Quality Index) below 100 and there was no blackout

• Bonus Objective 1: AQI below 50

• Bonus Objective 2: Power was never dangerously low

• “How is pollution measured in the game?” (Air Quality)

• “Is there a way to find out where pollution comes from in the city?”

• “What power sources are the least harmful, and the most harmful, to the environment?”

• “How can you avoid power blackouts?”

Closing

• “How did your end pollution level differ from your starting pollution level in today’s session? What strategies did you use that worked, and why?”

• “As you played today, what are two costs (things you had to give up) to decrease pollution? What effect did your anti-pollution solution have on the number of jobs?”

Essential Questions

• What are helpful ways to think about and make positive changes in complex systems?

• How can communities intervene on complex systems in ways that have positive results for residents and the environment?

• What is the role of technology and planning in reducing human impact on the environment?

• What are the pros and cons of each job-generating zone?

• What is the relationship between jobs and pollution, and how is it possible to balance the two?

Gameplay and Hints

• Mission Objective: 2,500 jobs with AQI (Air Quality Index) below 150

• Bonus Objective 1: More than 3000 jobs were created

• Bonus Objective 2: AQI below 50

• “Is there a way to find out what cerates pollution in a city?”

• “How can you avoid power blackouts?”

• “What are the pros/cons of renewable/green energy sources?”

• “Have you looked at the information about energy/pollutions/price of each power plant? Can this information make you a smarter mayor?”

• “Did you know to upgrade or turn off building? Why would those be good?”

Closing

• “As you played today, how were you able to increase the number of jobs and lower pollution (our main variables)?”

• “What strategies did you use that worked, and why?”