Coming to a Library and School near you--Village Trade!
Meet our latest education and outreach tool: the “Village
Trade” card game!
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| Custom box by our intern Tanis! |
When I tell people that FPAN’s core mission is to conduct
education and outreach, it always leads to more questions.—“Who do you educate,
how old are your students, how do you communicate archaeology to the public?”
My
answer always varies, but it ends up something like this:
“Well, we work with all age groups, from age 5 to 105. And
we focus on state and local parks, K-12 schools, and museums; basically
anywhere that has a vested interest in history, cultural resources, and
preservation is a good venue for FPAN programming. Our organization delivers
workshops, lectures, activities, and pretty much anything else we can do to
pass on our mission of heritage preservation.”
Therefore, I’m happy that we have this trading card game as
our newest medium for teaching about archaeology and Florida Prehistory.
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| Each player receives a board like this one, to keep track of their products and materials |
The object of the game is to trade and collect natural
resources such as palm fronds, shells, bones, lumber, and then use them to
create tools and structures of Florida’s past. In addition you’ll need to
create one “special item” before your opponents do.
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| Of course in Florida, you'd want to build a mound! |
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| Special Items include ear spools and pendants! |
For example, it would
take 1 wood, 1 palm frond, and 1 shell to create a shell hammer. But, to earn
the coveted ear spools, you would need to get your hands on 1 wood, 1 bone, and
1 piece of (rare) copper. The first player to construct their village, forge
their tools, and obtain an exotic piece of jewelry wins the game!
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| Bones, Wood, and Shells, oh my! |
“Village Trade” will be coming to a school, library, and
museum near you!!
Text and Images, Ryan Harke. Full credit to Tanis Montgomery
for illustrations and graphic design of cards and game box.