TEKS World Geography
Statecraft’s International Relations (IR) Simulation fulfills the TEKS World Geography requirements by thrusting students into World Leader roles on a fictional geopolitical map. Students must navigate a resource-dry world by understanding how to produce resources based on their geographical location to achieve collective, competitive, and quality of life goals all the while engaging in diplomacy with their classmates.
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
4.85 out of 5 stars
Based on Spring 2022 User Satisfaction Survey
Organized by Standards: TEKS World Geography Alignment
The International Relations Simulation matches multiple TEKS World Geography standards completely, mostly, and partially. Below is an overview which standards are met as such:
Completely
- C(5a), C(7d), C(8c), C(10d), C(11a-c), C(12b), C(14b-c), C(15a-b), C(19a), C(19c), C(20b), C(21d-e), C(22b-d), C(23a), C(23c)
Mostly
- C(1b), C(2b), C(3c), C(5b), C(8a), C(8b), C(9a), C(10a), C(10c), C(12), C(13a), C(14a), C(18b), C(21a-c), C(22a)
Partially
- C(1), C(1a), C(4b), C(7a), C(7b), C(9b), C(10b), C(18a), C(18d)
Length of Simulation & Class Time
The IR Simulation runs for a default 7 to 10 weeks with each week being considered a “turn” (many instructors choose to run the sim for 12 or even 15 weeks, this is completely up to you and no extra charge to extend your simulation).
Note: A rule of thumb when scheduling turns is that each turn requires about 1.5 to 3 hours of work from the students.
Turn 0 is a Tutorial week for students to establish a basic understanding of the simulation and set up their countries. The sim runs live 24/7 which allows for maximum convenience for both instructors and students to cut deals and make decisions on their own time. We recommend establishing a 7 day per Turn schedule and having at least one day per week where you encourage students to negotiate, hold international negotiations, and even make speeches defending their countries’ actions on various global issues.
We recommend not telling your class how many Turns the simulation will last as students can act unrealistically and unpredictably when they know they are on the final turn.
Alternative Schedule Formats
Tapered turn schedules: If you want to run the full simulation within 4 weeks, you can use the tapered turn schedule model. Decrease each turn length by one day so that there is one less day than the previous turn until there are two days per turn. It is recommended to contact support at [email protected] for assistance and guidance on this setup. Instructors use this for summer, winter, or shortened terms!
One day simulation: If you want to run the simulation in one day, you only need 30 minutes between turns. You will schedule an all day play through with students on a Saturday or Sunday from 8 AM to 5 PM with a lunch break. It is recommended to contact support at [email protected] for assistance and guidance on this setup.
What Happens During a Turn
The simulation automatically groups students into countries based on the Foreign Policy Attitude Survey they take during the registration process. During Turn 0 students vote for their President, name their country and cities, and choose their government type and attributes.
Every week students are given a checklist and walkthroughs of their screen to guide them in achieving their goals and interacting with other countries. At the beginning of each Turn, students receive news messages with updates on major events and situations unfolding in their simulation. Instructors can also find these under “News” on the top of the instructor dashboard.
Students then make decisions about trade, country development, domestic politics, economics, the environment, and national security. All of their choices are cancellable until the Turn ends. Once the Turn ends, the simulation will calculate the impact of all student choices and start the next turn with new world conditions and unfolding sim events.
We recommend giving at least 30 minutes of class time per Turn to make decisions within their country and engage in international diplomacy.
Suggested Base Knowledge of Students
No base knowledge is required, however, to maximize the learning experience for students, we recommend the simulation start after discussing geographical resources. Since the sim can run for 7-10 weeks, class concepts that may help in cementing actions within the sim include and are not limited to: the examination of people, places, and environments at local, regional, national, and international scales; the influence of geography on events of the past and present; the analysis of how location affects economic activities in different economic systems; and more.
Class Assignments
- Memos: Instructors can provide students with a list of memo prompts for TEKS World Geography that help students tie their simulation experience to course topics.
- Debrief Presentation: This is a guided debrief that helps students reflect on the key moments that unfolded throughout the simulation. It prompts them to “reveal their cards” and openly explain their perspectives and actions from a 360 degree perspective. It is a great opportunity to encourage students to use their memos as historical references in creating a comprehensive presentation that they give to the rest of the class. Some classes have formalized this presentation and made it public to a larger audience. Watch students from The Çağ University in Turkey present their debrief to an auditorium of people!
- Debrief Paper Assignments: A paper to go along with the Debriefing Presentation that goes more in depth on how the debrief topic unfolded during the simulation.
Student Engagement Tracking
- The toggle option at top left of the map gives instructors a visual display of countries’ international attitudes and actions involving trade, diplomacy, conflict, and country development. The map is populated with country development rings surrounding capital cities along with colored arrows that indicate an array of collaborative and aggressive actions. Instructors can click on all of them to view specific details about each action and country interaction.
- To view a more detailed description of actions taken by a range of specific countries during specific Turns, instructors can review the “Interaction Log” found underneath the “Country” menu option on their dashboard.
- Weekly emails go straight to the instructor inbox and give an overview of sim events, country attitudes and general actions, and a student engagement report.
- Reading at least one memo from each country each week is a great way to understand how students perceive what is happening and how they currently feel about other countries and simulation events.
- Instructors can also log into each students’ dashboard and read their messages to see with which peers a student is interacting.
Grading
The following grading criteria is a basic recommendation and can be customized to fit your classroom needs. Read this pdf for more in depth information.
- 5% – Simulation Performance: Students’ simulation performance score is based on the accumulation of points through the achievement of collective goals, competitive goals, and the best average Quality of Life scores. Review this Grading Recommendation PDF to view three grading options around the goal achievement scores.
- 5% – Role Research Assignment: Students research the roles and submit an assignment that include their top 5 roles, descriptions, duties, and why they are interested in each role.
- 10% – Simulation Participation: Students are prompted to take two Manual quizzes during Turn 0 and Turn 1 which can be used as part of the participation grade. Students can connect the course materials more meaningfully to their TEKS World Geography class by writing weekly memos. Students are also prompted to rate the level of influence of exception peers in the simulation. You can add this to Sim Participation, Sim Performance, or consider giving it as extra credit for anyone who receives it.
- 15% to 30% – Paper or Debriefing Presentation: The paper or debriefing presentation requires you to integrate your simulation experience with a variety of course concepts.