Gamification for Economics

By Gary Sullivan
Unit 2 Government and Economics

• This unit focuses on the connections between the economy and government.
Throughout, it teaches students about the differing types of economies and
government found throughout the world and makes comparisons to them.
Additionally, it serves as an introduction to opportunity cost, the business
cycle, as well as monetary and fiscal policy.
Meaningful Gamification in
Government

• Social studies and particularly Government is rife with opportunities for

meaningful gamification as a means of increasing student achievement and
engagement in the typical classroom. This project was designed in order to
implement into my current teaching practices in the upcoming school year
based off principles learned throughout the year in this course. I am basing
much of my design off of Nicholsons RECIPE for Meaningful Gamification and
the work we have done so far this year.
 • The overarching focus of the unit's gamification will be on the
stock market game. As such, students will register with the
website and be placed into their teams initially early in the
unit, likely day one. 
• Students will be introduced to the concept and be given
knowledge of the incentive rewards that are available at the
end of the unit.

Background and
Setup
What is the game and how does it work?

• The Stock Market game gives

students/teams of students 100K and
asks them to invest it wisely into the
stock market. It tracks gains and losses
according to realistically modeled
market data. There are multiple lessons
about finance and investment as well
as quizzes, homework assignments, etc
available for teacher use as well.
Unit Length/Breakdown

The unit is planned to take 8-9 classes (a little over a month of real time) depending on student
familiarity with technology and anticipation of possible technical issues and limitations.

Experience 1 - 2 Days (Includes intro to game)

Experience 2 - 2 Days

Experience 3 - 2 Days

Experience 4 - 2/3 Days (Includes final assessment and incentive reward day)

 1-1 technology is ideal. Multiple activities
are designed around each student having
access to their own device. It is possible to
do work arounds with partners or possibly
cell phones but not ideal.

Materials The digital copy of Econoland to print and

make for the students to play. Laminated
ideally for reuse.

Economics worksheets and curriculum.

 Economics is the unit I find that students typically
enjoy the least, with much of the content being
confusing to those not already familiar with it. For
most students, this is an introduction to an
enormous amount of new vocabulary and

Why this unit?

concepts which they have not yet encountered.

As such, I thought meaningful gamification could

solve the problem I always seem to have
of students encountering a bunch of things they
don't understand and giving up by increasing
engagement with the content through games.
 Reflection and Applications
At the end of the unit, students will present their progression throughout
the game to the class graphically and orally through some kind of
presentation software of their choice.

Students will evaluate each groups decision making process and score

them for making appropriate purchasing decisions over the course of the
month.

Each presentation group will be required to decide whether they would

leave the money in the market or remove it at the end and why.