One of the most fulfilling types of lessons I began creating were simulations. These lessons were inspired from the thought, “What were the things I wish I got to do in school when I was younger?” The very first classroom simulation/game I put together was called the Atom Workshop. It was an assembly line simulation where the youngest students collected subatomic particles for the older students to arrange correctly, and then for our oldest students to demonstrate how they these atoms would bond together to make various molecules. This lesson became a trademark of our classroom, and later part of the upper elementary chemistry curriculum on the whole. Creating simulations would be the genesis of how I would create physical education games that integrate with the classroom.
When I was a classroom teacher, why did I naturally gravitate towards simulations and games? A simulation promotes experiential learning through students having to make decisions in open-ended instructional environments. Simulations develop critical thinking, decision-making, and enthusiasm from the participants through hands-on experiences. The use of simulations to bridge the gap between theory and reality makes them a no-brainer for industry, education, athletics, etc.
Before I knew all the benefits of simulations, subconsciously I knew this was one of my most preferred ways of learning. When I thought back on my own education, it was those simulation lessons that were the ones I could still remember decades later. There is a wonderful paper written by J Caniglia from Kent State on Simulations as a Teaching Strategy, which highlights many of the benefits of this type of learning. Upon reflection, it was probably inevitable that my interest in simulations would lead me to a path where I would create experiential learning environments utilizing all the strengths of the PE classroom.
For our classroom teachers who are also interested in simulations for teaching big concepts, I have just released a collection of seven classroom simulations that created and perfected over a decades time in the upper elementary classroom. it is called the Classroom Simulations Bundle, which you can find in the website store for $10. That’s seven lessons and over 60 pages of content for the low price of $10, and it’s also on sale with the Back to School promo code BACK2SCHOOL2021. You can download one of the lessons as a free sample here. If you have not used simulations before, I hope to make you a fan of them, and If you have been using simulations in the classroom, I give you a virtual thumbs up!