Empire! is a game of social studies knowledge. It is an effective and fun way to review the key points of our lessons.
Each class is divided into teams of 3-4 students. Teams remain together throughout the school year.
Teams will select a unique team name (see Team Names) and color. They will place their colored disk in their home region with a score of 5 (see Note 2) on that disk.
After each session of Empire! the highest scoring teams will capture an additional region. Teams can capture any region adjacent to (or connected by a �bridge� to) a region in which they have a colored disk.
The goal is to control the most number of regions at the end of the year. Any team that loses all their regions is eliminated.
Materials required
Small white marker boards for each team with dry erase markers, and cloth rags to erase the boards. Colored stick-on disks with enough different colors to have a unique color for each team. Empire! maps (one for each period), with North America divided into about 50 regions. Overhead projector and screen, on which the instructor will keep the team scores.
Rules
Empire! consists of a series of questions and is played in the following manner -
- Each team sits together, apart from the other teams.
- Each team has one marker board, dry erase marker, and an eraser / rag.
- Instructor asks a question.
- All the teams will attempt to answer that question. When the team agrees on the answer, they write the answer on their
marker board.
- After an appropriate period of time (15 sec � 2 min), the instructor will give the 10-second warning. This gives all teams the
last chance to write their answer down.
- At the end of the 10 seconds, the instructor will tell all teams to hold up their board.
- Teams who do not put up their board immediately will not receive credit for their answer.
- Instructor will look at all of the answers and determine which teams provided the correct answer. These teams will receive
the appropriate number of points. The instructor will mark these points on the scorecard that is displayed on the overhead
projector.
- The first question is worth one point. Each subsequent question increases one point in value, so that the 20th question is worth
20 points.
The teams that have the highest score at the end of the game (See Note 3) will earn points based upon their finish (See Note 4).
Teams may use these points to capture an adjacent region that has no score or a score lower than they earned.
The winning teams will place their colored disk in the region they capture. The score that goes on their new disk is the score they
earned based upon the Points Table.
If a team wins a region, but there is no region adjacent to them that they can capture, they may add the point value they won to
one of the regions they already control.
Notes
1. Team selection is critical. I will try to make the teams evenly balanced. As students move into and out of the class, it may be
necessary to adjust teams. Generally, we will wait until about 6 weeks into the year before we start Empire!. This gets us
through the period when students are moving in and out of school, and between Regular, Advanced and Honors classes.
2. The purpose of starting with a score of 5 in the home states is to ensure that a team doesn�t get eliminated (lose all their states)
early in the school year.
3. At least half the teams should earn points.
4. Points are awarded based upon the following points table. This table is appropriate for a class with 8-9 teams. Basically, the
number of points won will increase as the year goes on. This keeps teams interested and keeps any team from building an
insurmountable lead early in the year.
Points Table
Wks 1-5 Wks 6-10 Wks 11-15 Wks 16-20 Wks 21-25 Wks 26-30 Wks 31-35
1st place 2 3 3 4 4 5 6
2nd place 2 2 3 3 4 4 5
3rd place 1 2 2 3 3 4 5
4th place 1 1 2 2 3 3 4
5th place 1 1 1 1 2 2 3
Hints
If all the teams get the question right, we do not count the question. This keeps me from having to do a lot of adding. If only one
team gets the wrong answer, I subtract points from that team rather than adding points to the other 7-8 teams.
For some questions with a numerical or date answer (total population, average summer temperature, etc), I might announce ahead
of time that if no team gets the exact answer, I will award the points to the 3-4 teams with the closest answer.
Teams are always eager to capture a region belonging to another team rather than capturing an empty region. My advise is that
they are almost always better off taking the empty region. Just like in real life, you don�t want to make enemies if you
don�t have to.
Every 5th question is a non-social studies bonus question.
For the last 3-4 sessions of the year, we increase the number of regions that may be captured. This gives the teams that got a slow
start a chance to mount a late comeback. For example, I may have the winning team capture 3 regions (worth 5, 4, and 3);
the second place team capture 2 regions (worth 4 and 3); and other winning teams capture one region each.
Any discipline infraction results in points being subtracted from the team. Team members are responsible for policing their
teammates.
While Empire! is a fun game, it also is graded. Each member of a team that captures a region during a session of Empire! gets one
point added to their quarter grade.
At the end of the year, we conduct a school-wide Empire! championship with the top team from each class participating.
The last 5 minutes of the period are for collecting materials, getting desks back into line and having the winning teams select
their captured regions and put the colored disks on the map.