EDTEC 670 Board Game Project Proposal Detail

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Title	Economizer
Description	I envision a game that applies simple math concepts to national economies. The game would consist of a board game with a map of four continents (countries), each with different shapes and features, but approximately the same size. There would be no land border between any of the four countries, only water. Thus, the only transportation between countries would be by sea or by air. The main idea would be to be given a country on a fictitious map, would involve four teams of three. In other words, three students would be assigned to a given country. Each country would have a specialized commodity, such as raw materials (oil, coal, and minerals), crops, and textiles. These materials would be imported and exported between countries. Situations would be presented that would require a certain amount of each commodity to be used to accomplish a given task. Therefore, each team would have to consider, make offers, and trade certain things. My idea would be for each group to have a combined score, that represented their GDP at any point in the game...this could be kept on a scorecard. Students would have to weigh the cost/time benefits of importing or exporting their goods via ship or plane. Ultimately, each country would have to attain a unique ratio of resources, depending on the situations they were presented with. This would require a stack of cards with different economic situations on them. In the math component, they would have to use scale factors to calculate distances on a map....by using a scale factor provided in the legend, the group would use a ruler to measure the distance between two cities or countries, and use unit rates to calculate the cost of transporting certain goods between and among these locations. The economics involved would be the combinations of resources needed to solve the situation. I envision "situation cards" to be drawn randomly by each team. Also, manipulatives on the board would be game pieces that could represent different commodities to be traded between and among countries. Each commodity type would be stackable on the same type, resulting in small "towers" of each commodity in each country. To determine winner, the game would be timed....It would be set for a specific time frame like 20 minutes. The winning team would be the one with the highest GDP at the end of this time frame. GDP would be calculated based on the acquired resources and the needs of their particular country and situations drawn from the cards. So, all teams would tally their scores at the end, generating a results list of the four teams. Extra care would need to be taken during the design stage to provide for fairness among countries and situations presented relative to each countries' basic needs. I thought this would bring together Math and Economics in a way that would be fun to learn and practical, especially for students to understand the complexities of global economics. Looking for others to join me... particularly graphic artist, and content expert.
Submitted by:	Brian Campbell, CAMBEZE@GMAIL.COM