Geography Game

Early on in my teaching career, I struggled with ways to help my students learn geography. One idea I came up with was creating a game based in the land of Canaan that would help students “feel” geography. This game was the result! It was eventually published in a journal that focuses on teaching religion. I have also included all the pieces below for those who want to play the game.

“War and Peace in Canaan: Connecting Geography with Political and Military Affairs in Ancient Israel through a Classroom Game” Teaching Theology and Religion 21 (2018): 306–20

Overview of the Game “War and Peace in Canaan” (Good Book Blog)

The base of the game is an editable map in PowerPoint. Each turn players can write on the map their instructions for their own city, and then the teacher can update the base map and produce a new map for each turn for students to write on. The rules are handed out over the course of the various turns.

Just as an illustration, here is an example of a turn in one game that I played with students. In this case, the battles that are about to happen all focus on the Jezreel Valley (where battles happen frequently in this game and in the Old Testament) and the northern highlands. The next map below shows the results: Shechem took control of the Jezreel Valley, but lost vital parts of the hill country to Hebron. However, Hebron’s attack on Ammon across the Jordan River was defeated. The final map below shows what the setup for turn five looked like: Tyre is in the lead, with Ammon and Gaza right behind them. However, Gaza eventually went on to win this game by convincing Hebron and Shechem to be vassals and defeating the opposing alliance led by Ammon.