authentic learning...history style

When it comes to situated cognition knowledge is gained through experiences in authentic learning scenarios.  If you want to be a doctor you should immerse yourself in a hospital residency.  If you want to be a lawyer you should intern at a law firm or serve as a law clerk.  The best way for people to learn is to be immersed in the environment and solve problems in a apprenticeship model of learning.  But when it comes to teaching in a high school, how can we give students these authentic learning experiences? 

            Making history come alive to give students an authentic and meaningful learning experience is difficult.  In order to accomplish this I try to incorporate simulations, games, and immersive experiences into my classroom.  When I teach my classes about Westward Expansion we play a simple PowerPoint game where they are settlers trying to make it on the Oregon Trail and need to make it from Missouri to the West.  The must chose what their job will be, when they will start the journey, what type of wagon they will purchase, supplies, and everything else under the sun.  Each decision they make will impact them on the excursion.  While on the trail they face some of the usual problems that the people of the time had to deal with; no food, bad weather, attacks by bandits, dysentery, the works.  If they can work together as a team and make the right decisions then they will make it through with minimal issues or they may end up stranded in Idaho with no money, wagon, or food. 

Even though I am giving them an environment that is artificial and controlled by me it is still an authentic learning experience.  I am placing them in the shoes of these brave pioneers and forcing them to make life or death.  They are learning about a topic in context and solving realistic problems with this context.  I try to create some form of a immersive activity or project for my students to learn from with each unit.  When we learn about Reconstruction I have them create their own Reconstruction plans.  Once we start the project they know what the actual problems facing our country were and must develop the best way possible to heal the wounds of the Civil War and reunite our nation.  Authentic activities do not stop at the history classroom.  In my Civics class my students complete mock Presidential elections, mock Congress simulations where they must create and pass legislation, and mock trials for hypothetical Supreme Court Cases.  The simulations in my Civics classes deal with current issues and legislation so they are very authentic.  Simulated or not, I give my students authentic problems from the time periods we study so that they can see and experience firsthand what it was like for people in the past.  Trying to solve the issues and make life or death decisions like people once did make my history classroom an immersive and effective learning experience.