Hello, and welcome back to my blog! It’s definitely been a while since I’ve posted a blog post, but it’s nice to be back. 

This last project was about nationalism and Confederation. We started with a simulation! In this we simulated the Confederation of Canada.

When our class simulated Confederation, I learned a lot about Canada’s history. I was leading the colony of New Brunswick with Evangeline, Charlie R, and Jasper. Together, we decided on things to demand of confederation. In the end, most of our needs were met, so we decided to sign and join confederation! Unfortunately, not everyone joined confederation, because not every colony’s needs were met. PEI and Nova Scotia decided not to, because not all their needs could be met because they were both so small with such big demands. For example, PEI wanted to remove taxes for all their farmers, which is a very big ask for such a small colony. The big colonies, on the other hand, benefited greatly, because they were granted a lot of political power and got more of their demands met. Our colony had quite a few demands, and we purposely made some that we didn’t care much about so that we could use them as bargaining chips. In the end, we had everything we wanted, because we made it seem like we had the Capitol taken away from us when really we didn’t want it that bad. By the end of the simulation I realized that I would absolutely hate being in political power. Confederation involved a lot of big decisions made with stubborn people, and it was a lot of work for a few decisions about our country. I did realize how important these decisions were, though, which is something I never thought of before the simulation.

The simulation was our first keystone. Our second keystone was a board game proposal.

Basically, for this whole project, we were building towards the finish line of a playable board game about Confederation, showcasing our learning about nationalism and Confederation. I was somewhat excited about this, but also afraid that I would be setting myself up for disappointment in the board game and it wouldn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. Luckily, my partner for the board game was Evangeline, and she helped to make the Confederation board game of our dreams!

Our proposal was a game called The Colonies of Confederation, and in it you can take historical perspective on the leaders of the different colonies as you try to come up with confederation and agree with the other people. In our proposal, there was also a timeline that we would aim for, trying to complete different parts of the game by certain days. I think we were mostly able to stick to the timeline, which is great. We were able to describe how our game showed nationalism by showing how people must come together and have shared beliefs or needs in order to become a nation.

Finally, the third keystone was the rules of our board game. Through this, we showed our learning in our introduction to the game, showcasing what nationalism is and how Confederation reflected it. We were also able to easily explain how to play our game, using understandable, descriptive language and also using our graphic design skills to make it set the mood and be possible to read. Here are our rules:

Here’s a picture of our board game:

After that, one of the grade 8 classes came and played our games with us!

Throughout this project, I learned a lot about Confederation and nationalism. Before this project, I didn’t even know what nationalism was! But now I know all about how it can connect people through different beliefs, races, experiences, and more. I think that the idea of nationalism is really important to who we are as people, and I think it’s a really cool concept.

See you in the next project,

Susan