Coffee House Historian

Teaching Historical Thinking & Social Studies

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simulations

Simulating Legitimacy: Power, Agency, and the Fall of the Roman Republic

October 22, 2025 / Shane Twaddell / Leave a comment

Students stepped into the chaos of Rome’s collapsing Republic, making decisions that balanced legitimacy between elites and commoners. Each crisis forced them to weigh tradition, charisma, and law, sometimes with a roll of the dice. The simulation brought Weber’s theories to life, turning abstract political concepts into lived experience and reflection.

Negotiating History: A Classroom Simulation of the Treaty of Westphalia

September 7, 2025 / Shane Twaddell / Leave a comment

Simulations bring history alive, even if students don’t always land on the “right” outcome. My Treaty of Westphalia simulation in AP European History pushed students to negotiate, compromise, and reflect, skills as valuable as the history itself.

Roman Republic: Trade & Politics Simulation

June 28, 2022November 1, 2022 / Shane Twaddell / Leave a comment

I love using simulations strategically in the classroom. This is one I created recently on the Roman Republic that has both economic and political components.

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  • AP European History
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“History gives answers only to those who know how to ask questions.”

Hajo Holborn, German-American historian (1902-1969)

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