Source · Primary · paper

The Production and Evaluation of Three Computer-Based Economics Games for the Sixth Grade: Final Report

Wing, Richard L., Mabel Addis, Walter Goodman, Jimmer Leonard, and William McKay. 1967. “The Production and Evaluation of Three Computer-Based Economics Games for the Sixth Grade: Final Report.” U.S. Office of Education, Cooperative Research Project 2841 (ERIC ED014227). Board of Cooperative Educational Services, First Supervisory District, Westchester County, New York.

Cite as
Wing et al. 1967
Original
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED014227.pdf
sha256
ba4f70002fa1c88601a969f445b95a5d9c51e8f0eb42bf76991ce9f3e3ccfbf1
Archived
https://web.archive.org/web/20250224220323/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED014227.pdf
Accessed
2026-10-20
Licence
none stated; a report under a U.S. Office of Education grant, distributed by ERIC
Credit
Richard L. Wing directed the project; Mabel Addis wrote the Sumerian Game and William McKay of IBM programmed it.
Notes
192-page ERIC scan (sha256 ba4f70002fa1c88601a969f445b95a5d9c51e8f0eb42bf76991ce9f3e3ccfbf1). Page numbers are the report's own: preface p. ii, Part II from p. 12, equipment p. 60, the experiment p. 65.

Cited on

Claims (10)

Dyment's steward opens each year with "I BEG TO REPORT", and The Sumerian Game reported spoiled grain with "Sir: I am sorry to report".p. 15Code
The Sumerian Game came out of a partnership between the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) of Northern Westchester County, New York, and IBM, and was begun in Cooperative Research Project 1948, which ran from February 1963 to August 1964.p. ii, Prefacep. 12Paper
Mabel Addis, a fourth-grade teacher, wrote the instructional version, and William McKay of IBM programmed it.p. 13, note 1Paper
Students played on IBM 1050 terminals linked by Dataphone to a special-purpose IBM 7090 under a time-sharing monitor at IBM's Yorktown Heights division, and the game was about 15,000 lines of Fortran Assembly Program code.p. 60p. 60Paper
The student rules Lagash in Sumer, about 3500 B.C., as Luduga I, and each season divides the grain among food, seed, and storage.pp. 13–14p. 14Paper
The first problem reads: "We have harvested 5,000 bushels of grain to take care of 500 people."p. 14Paper
The report's population model makes 18 bushels per person the best ration.p. 14Paper
Grain left in inventory can rot, and the game reports the loss as grain that has "rotted or been eaten by rats".p. 15, Grain RottingPaper
Floods and fires strike in 5 seasons out of 16 overall, cutting the harvest by 10% to 40%.p. 15Paper
From October 1965 to March 1966, 26 sixth graders from the Mohansic School in Yorktown Heights played it and the Sierra Leone Game in the project's experiment.p. 65Paper