The Scarcity of Catan

Economic Systems
Michigan Economics Standards Addressed:
1.1.1 Scarcity, Choice, Opportunity Costs, and Comparative Advantage Using examples, explain
how scarcity, choice, opportunity costs affect decisions that households, businesses, and
governments make in the market place and explain how comparative advantage creates gains from
trade.
Lesson Objective: Students be introduced to the concept of scarcity and the role that it plays
within Economics.
Materials:
Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity Overview
Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity Reflection Questions
Settlers of Catan Resource cards (Wood, Stone, Wheat, Brick, and Sheep)
Settlers of Catan Settlement Cards
Longest Road Trophy
Largest Army Trophy
The Robber
Set of 2 6-sided die
Plan of Instruction:
1. Warm-up: Get into groups of 3-4, with a maximum of 8 groups.
2. Use the Settlers of Catan Activity overview to explain the rules of the game to the students.
Make sure to emphasize:
3. Begin the first round by rolling the set of 2 6-sided die 5 times and record the results for
students to see.
4. Have one student from each group come up and collect the resource cards they earned that
period.
5. Groups may now build settlements, upgrade settlements, buy development cards or trade
with other groups or the bank. Set a 5 minute timer.
6. At the end of the 5 minutes, record the number of settlements, the number of cities, the
number of roads and the number of armies for each group and post it for all groups to see.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 for each round.
8. Formative Assessment: When 5-7 minutes are remaining in the class, finish that round
and have the students answer the Reflection Questions.
Sources:
Settlers of Catan Board Game
Gangi, John. "Settlers of Catan and Intro to Econ." Econ Rules, econrules.com/?page_id=498.
Accessed 28 Apr. 2017.

US History - 1920s and the Great Depression Prohibition

 Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity Overview
Activity Overview:
Settlers of Catan is a board game all about scarcity. This activity takes some of the concepts
from the game to simplify it and emphasize the concept of scarcity: we have unlimited wants
(build settlements, upgrade settlements to cities, get the longest road or build the longest army)
but limited resources (you can only use the resource cards you acquire through the game). This
activity uses the element of chance (dice rolls determine which resources are collected, just like
in Settlers of Catan, which adds an element of uncertainty to the game).
5 Types of Resources:
Wood
Stone
Wheat
Brick
Sheep
Students will be divided into groups of 3-4, with a total of 8 groups within the classroom. Each
group will be given three resource cards with a number on them, with one settlement on each
resource. Whenever that number is rolled, the students may collect the resource on that card (1
for a settlement, 2 for a city).
Activity Goal (for students): Aquire more points than any other group. Students may acquire
point by:
Building a Settlement (up to 6 total) - 1 point each
Upgrading a Settlement to a City - 2 points each, replaces a settlement
Acquiring a Victory Point from a Development Card
Having the Longest Road in the class - 2 points
Having the Largest Army in the class - 2 points
Each group starts with:
3 Settlement Resource cards
1 Road card
2 resource cards of each Settlement Resource card
Activity Rules:
You may use the resource cards that you acquire throughout the game to:
build another settlement (and therefore acquire a new resource card)
upgrade a settlement to a city
build a road
buy a development card
trade with other groups
trade with me (Im not cheap)
Before you can build an additional settlement, you must build 2 roads. This applies for every
additional settlement that you build (for your fourth settlement, you would need to have 2 roads
built).
You acquire resource cards by having the number on your card rolled. If a 7 is rolled and you
have more than 7 cards in your hand, you must discard half of them (round down for odd
numbers) and the robber eliminates 1 resource card from one group. If a 7 is rolled in the first
round, nothing happens, but any round after that the robber steals a resource from one group.

Economics: Economic Systems Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity

To signify the robber, have something represent it and place it over the highest value resource
for that group. The first group to be robbed is delimited by a roll of the die (you may use a die
equal to the number of groups, such as an 8-sided die for 8 groups or roll both sets of die until a
group number comes up). After the first group is robbed and another 7 is rolled, that group may
choose another groups resource to rob.
Building Options and Costs for Students (post for students to see):
Build a Settlement:
Cost: 1 Wheat, 1 Wood, 1 Brick, 1 Sheep
Upgrade a Settlement to a City:
Cost: 2 Wheat and 3 Stone
Build a Road:
Cost: 1 Wood and 1 Brick
Buy a Development Card:
Cost: 1 Sheep, 1 Wheat, 1 Stone
Activity Progression:
After each group has been given their starting materials, begin the first round. Each ground
consists of 5 rolls of the die. Write the numbers rolled on the board or use some other way to
display the numbers rolled (such as a DOT Camera) so that the students can visually see the
rolls. After 5 rolls, each group must collect their resource cards from the bank (me), use a
building option if they have enough resources, or trade with another group or the bank.
Depending on their resource cards, some groups might not collect any resources in a round
while other groups cash in. This is part of the game!
If you do not have 2 sets of 6 sided die, you can use an app on your phone or tablet or a virtual
dice roller (such as http://dice.virtuworld.net/).
Each round should be kept moving fairly quickly (5 minutes per round should be plenty, which
allows you to get quite a few rounds in during a class period). Things may get a little crazy in the
classroom, especially when students realize that they need to start trading with other groups to
get the resources that they need. Make sure that you have some way of re-gaining students
attention during the chaos (a particular song being played, a hand clap routine, etc).
At the end of each round, the instructor should record the number of settlements, cities, roads
and armies for each group and post that for other groups to see.
After one group has built at least 5 roads, that group is awarded the Longest Road Trophy (the
trophy can be anything in the classroom thats easy to move). To steal the Longest Road
Trophy, another group must build one more road than the original group. For example, if Group
A has 6 roads, then Group B must build at least 7 to steal the card. However, if Group A builds
another road before Group B can reach 7, then Group B must build an additional road to steal
the Longest Road Trophy, and so on.
After one group has acquired 3 army cards, they are awarded the Largest Army Trophy (the
trophy can be anything in the classroom thats easy to move). To steal the Largest Army Trophy,
another group must acquire one more army than the original group, just as with the Longest
Road Trophy.
Activity Reflection:
When 5-7 minutes are remaining in the class period, end the activity and have students begin
answering the Reflection Questions that are on the Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity Reflection

Economics: Economic Systems Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity

Questions Handout. Students might struggle answering the last question, where they have to
come up with a definition of Scarcity, but thats ok. Have them do their best.
Directions for Students:
We will be doing an activity based off the board game Settlers of Catan. Your goal in this activity
is to get as many points as possible. You can acquire points by: building settlements, upgrading
settlements to cities, having the longest road, having the largest army, getting victory points
from Development Cards.

Economics: Economic Systems Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity

 Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity
Reflection Questions
What resources were scarce, or difficult to acquire, during the game?

What did you do to acquire these resources (if at all)?

How did your group go about making choices about what to do with your resources?

What were some of the choices you made during the course of the game?

Did your choices help your or hurt you? How so?

What would you do differently if you could do this activity again?

This activity was all about Scarcity. In your own words, how might you define Scarcity? (If
youve having trouble, use the questions above to help you).

Economics: Foundations of Economics Settlers of Catan Scarcity Activity