| Grade Level | System Requirement | Product Number |
|---|---|---|
| Grades 5-12 | Apple 64K | A157 |
| The Oregon Trail is an award-winning historical simulation that allows students to learn about westward expansion in the 1840s by taking a trip via covered wagon from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The program requires players to make life-and-death decisions about supplies, travel pace, hunting, and more as they traverse the rugged landscape of 19th-century America. | ||
Introduction
The simulation of emigrants traveling The Oregon Trail is simple enough for young children to operate and enjoy. At the same time, the simulation is rich enough to support the interest and involvement of older students. It can motivate the fifth grader learning for the first time about people moving across the North American continent by covered wagon; the seventh grader exploring the significance of the Louisiana Purchase; or the tenth grader studying the Westward expansion. It can motivate students of any age to better understand the present by studying the past.
Fiction is used in this simulation to establish time, place, character, and event. However, the primary intent of the simulation is to particularize events and details that will suggest the broader experience of not one, but many overland journeys. The simulation will suggest the impact that over 300,000 people trekking overland by covered wagon to Utah, California, and Oregon had on the development of the western states. To enhance this broader experience, the manual includes perspectives on the simulation and the historical trail; study guides; and a teacher’s guide correlated to student activities. A follow-up session for teacher and students ties together the simulation and related activities with discussion questions drawn from the learning objectives listed in the manual. Appendices include a map of the overland trails, a summary of the model, and a list of source materials.
The Oregon Trail diskette requires an Apple II Plus with 64K, and an Apple //e or //e computer. While the program is not color-dependent in operation, use of a color monitor is suggested for a fuller appreciation of the many on-screen color graphics.
Details of the program
Curriculum Area: Social Studies
Subject: American History
Grade Level: 5-Adult
Topics: The Overland Trail to Oregon in 1848
Description: This frontier simulation-an updated enhancement of MECC’s classic OREGON program-allows students to plan and execute journeys on the Oregon Trail of 1848. Students cross rivers, prairies, and mountains, visit forts, talk to people along the way, and face a variety of challenges, from bad weather to food shortages. In doing so, students acquire a greater sense of what life was like for pioneers in nineteenth-century America. The simulation is presented in a game format; “winners” are those who make it to Oregon.
Computer Rationale: The computer-through graphics, animation, and randomization of events-enables students to become “participants” in history, increasing their knowledge and understanding of past events and how they relate to the present.
Features:
- a two-sided program diskette
- colorful graphics
- cause-and-effect problem-solving opportunities
- historical accuracy based on actual records from the 1800s
Menu Options:
TRAVEL THE TRAIL – The central program of The Oregon Trail, a realistic simulation of life on the American frontier in 1848.
LEARN ABOUT THE TRAIL – A brief introductory overview of what students can expect while using TRAVEL THE TRAIL.
SEE THE OREGON TOP TEN – Contains listings of “parties” whose journeys have accumulated enough points to place in the game’s Top Ten.