Agricultural Sciences: Teaching Agriculture via Games: Settlers of Catan Classroom Activity

As part of my Masterclass, I came up with an energizer activity with the theme of agriculture using the popular board game Settlers of Catan. I only have 20 minutes for the game, but you can expand this out to be as many days as you want, or even take an entire grading period and use it as a base. I love using games to teach, because it doesn't feel like teaching, and there are so many options out there now to teach like this, that I'll include a list of games I've used in my own classroom. Enjoy!

Here's the premise for the energizer: You have a set number of lands (6 in my case but you can scale up or down depending on students) and each land has a certain number of 'settlements' (road, settlement, city). You can make these up ahead of time, based on your class requirements. I'm going to have about 60 adults so I can make it a bit more difficult for a shorter time. Each Table will have a Catan Landscape Tile at it and a list of what items will be needed to ‘settle’ the table. I made large 'tiles' that will be taped to the tables with the listing of resources needed to settle it to shorten the time.

Land Tiles: Cities, Mountains, Forest, Hills, Fields, & Pasture

Requirements Card posted at each table. I made large posters by splitting the image in half and printing each half on an 8.5x11 sheet, then taping them together.

As each person enters they are given a stack of ‘material’ cards. They will need to find other people who have cards to combine to ‘settle’ the tables. All cards in a person’s hand must be used. Trading is allowed, not everyone will have equal quantities of resources.

Resources: Ore, Wheat, Brick, Wood, Wool

Because people come in late, I also made 'Serf' cards. Nothing like a bit of public shaming to get the task done. I found these great images and put text under them. While we won't be going into what a serf is in my game, you could definitely do so in a different classroom setting. Other topics to discuss might be land grabbing, indentured servitude, small holding, subsistence farming, etc.

For my game, I'll give the instructions and set people free for 15 minutes, walking around to help when someone gets confused. The point of my game is to get tables settled for a dinner we're having, but in a classroom setting you would obviously be able to expand to include discussions and research of what land degradation, development, deforestation, environmental science, natural resources, conservation, fires, water transpiration, human and animal waste, agriculture, machines, chemicals, and a host of other items would do to the land, the cost, the trading requirements, etc.

Using the actual Board Games and the rules can also give different ways to tackle these questions, lead to interesting debates, and allow teachers to tailor it to their particular subject matter. I taught Business Ed, which in Florida, includes Agriculture, Accounting, Marketing, Human Resources, Computers, and a host of other topics. I can see being able to include a game like this in many of them, simply by changing the focus: Supply Chain Management, Product or Housing Marketing, Trade Agreements, Geo-Politics, History, Economics, etc.

Land Requirements:

Location:	MOUNTAINS
Settlements:	3
Roads:	2
Cities:	0
Resources Needed:	Ore	Wheat	Brick	Wood	Wool
Resources Needed:	0	3	5	5	3

Location:	PASTURES
Settlements:	2
Roads:	4
Cities:	1
Resources Needed:	Ore	Wheat	Brick	Wood	Wool
Resources Needed:	3	5	6	6	2

Location:	HILLS
Settlements:	3
Roads:	4
Cities:	0
Resources Needed:	Ore	Wheat	Brick	Wood	Wool
Resources Needed:	0	3	7	7	3

Location:	FIELDS
Settlements:	5
Roads:	6
Cities:	1
Resources Needed:	Ore	Wheat	Brick	Wood	Wool
Resources Needed:	3	7	10	10	5

Location:	FORESTS
Settlements:	2
Roads:	2
Cities:	0
Resources Needed:	Ore	Wheat	Brick	Wood	Wool
Resources Needed:	0	2	4	4	2

Location:	CITIES
Settlements:	4
Roads:	10
Cities:	5
Resources Needed:	Ore	Wheat	Brick	Wood	Wool
Resources Needed:	15	14	14	14	4

Now, here is a list of games I have used in a classroom and yes, even the grade schooler games I used in my high school classroom. They are normally faster so you don't need to spend as much time explaining the rules. Once or twice a grading period I had a game day where there were various games set up and that's all we did. It was a way to give the kids a break while reinforcing subconsciously whatever we had been discussing. They really loved the Allowance and Payday games.

The Allowance Game

Making Cents Money Game

ATM Action! Money Game

Payday

Life: Careers Edition

What's the Matter? Science Game

Oregon Train Card Game

Into the Forest: Nature's Food Chain