Connect students directly to the concept in a personal way. Capture students' attention by initiating a group problem-solving activity before delivery of instruction. Begin with a situation that is familiar to students and builds on what they already know. Construct a learning experience that allows diverse and personal student responses. Facilitate the work of cooperative teams of students.

Survival Activity

Objective: Students will experience a situation in which the basic materials for survival are not available and relate their experience to that of Depression Era Americans.

Activity: A day or two before you intend to begin this unit divide the note cards into five different stacks. Three of the stacks should contain significantly fewer cards than the total number of students in your class and two of the stacks should contain more cards than the total number of students in your class. The total number of cards should be at least five times greater than the total number of students in your class. Write “Food and Water,” “Clothing,” and “Shelter” on the cards in the small stacks so that there is one stack of each. Write “Radio” and “Bicycle” (or two other non-essentials) on the cards in the larger stacks so that there is a stack of each. Before your students come to class place the note cards in the box and mix them together.
As your students come into class tell them to draw four cards from the box and take their seats. When all the students have drawn four cards remove the remaining cards from the box. Give your class an opportunity to look at their cards and the cards of their neighbors. Do not prevent them from trading cards. After a few minutes, explain to your class that they will be participating in an activity about survival and that their goal is to obtain the necessities of life. Tell them that the activity is pass/fail and that to pass they must each obtain a “Food and Water” card, a “Clothing” card and a “Shelter” card. This should be impossible for all students to do. Sooner or later your students will figure out that there are not enough of these cards to go around. At this point they will begin to come to you and ask for more essential cards. Refuse to give them the cards and tell them that they just aren’t trying hard enough. Carefully monitor the tension level in the room. Try to preserve the integrity of the activity as long as possible. When students begin to demand more essentials cards, give out any remaining essentials cards, but pretend to be disappointed in your students. When you feel they’ve had enough, explain the point of the activity and its connection to the Great Depression

Assessment: Student involvement and engagement in the activity.