ABSTRACT
Language, history, and geography lessons make use of role play and simulations to bring real life to the classroom. It allows students to explore systems where the real thing cannot be used for teaching purposes because it involves other people or is too expensive, complex, dangerous, fast, or slow. The teacher can never be sure of how comprehensively the subject of the simulation will be covered. Simulations, games, and role-play activities have a voracious appetite for time and resources. Buying an off-the-shelf professionally produced game or simulation enables the teacher to take advantage of the skills of the experienced writer. Many users or facilitators of games and simulation find it useful to use short warm-up games to start with, particularly with new groups of students. In practice, the designer has a mixture of ideas about the material to be taught, the way in which her or his students learn, the available resources.
