Your mission
Run a family wheat farm on the southern Great Plains from 1910 to 1940, and keep the farm (cash above $0) with at least half its topsoil. Before each 5-year turn, choose how many acres to plow, whether to buy a tractor on credit, and later which New Deal and conservation programs to use. Then predict, launch, and watch the years play out.
Two partners, one iPad. Partner A sets the controls. Partner B checks the reasoning in How it works and agrees on a prediction. Switch roles every turn.
Answer the worksheet. Tap Worksheet at the top. New questions appear after each level you play.
Key words
- Topsoil
- the rich top layer of soil where crops grow. Wind can blow it away.
- Credit
- borrowing money now and paying it back over time.
- Mortgage
- a loan that uses the farm as its promise. If you can't pay, the bank takes the farm.
- Foreclose
- when the bank takes the farm because the family can't pay.
- Drought
- a long stretch of much less rain than normal.
Simplified: trends follow history; numbers are illustrative.
Choose a level
Each level starts from its own farm, so you can play them separately. Pass a level to unlock the next. Stars: ★★★ pass on your first launch, ★★ on the second, ★ after that. Calculating beats guessing!
Progress lives only on this page. It resets if the page reloads.
Simplified: trends follow history; numbers are illustrative. Prices and drought years are historical; yields, costs, and payments are illustrative.