USH.30

Dust Road: A Journey Through the Great Depression

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Game Info for Teachers

COMBINED RATING

5.0 Stars

TEACHERS (2)

5.0

STUDENTS (0)

0.0

LENGTH

19 Minutes

GRADES

CAPABILITIES

Text-to-Speech Support

Saves Progress

Description

The Great Depression was a part of daily life, not just headlines. In Dust Road, students guide a family across a 15-stop journey toward a better life, managing food, cash, health, truck condition, morale, and hope while facing the same kinds of tradeoffs Americans faced in the 1930s. Each stop includes a primary source from the era and a meaningful choice with clear consequences, so students learn through evidence, cause and effect, and historical reasoning. By the end, students can connect everyday decisions to major events—and to the government responses that shaped the decade.

Vocabulary Words

Stock Market Crash

bank run

unemployment

relief

recovery

reform

New Deal

Dust Bowl

migration

WPA

primary source

tradeoff

cause and effect

Instructions

Play through this interactive game to learn about The Great Depression. Suitable for Grade 5, Grade 6, Grade 7, Grade 8.

Main Concepts

Evaluate criticisms of the New Deal from both conservatives and radicals, including Huey Long’s Share Our Wealth plan.

Analyze how Hard Times oral histories capture the emotional and psychological toll of the Depression.

Describe how the Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided jobs and supported artists during the Depression.

Analyze how letters sent to Eleanor Roosevelt reflected citizen demands for greater federal assistance.

Explain the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl migration to California and other states.

Evaluate the impact of the New Deal on women, African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans.

Summarize key New Deal programs and their goals in addressing unemployment, banking failures, and rural poverty.

Explain the significance of FDR’s Fireside Chats in restoring public confidence and communicating New Deal policies.

Describe Franklin D. Roosevelt’s approach to leadership during the Depression, including his optimism and call for a "New Deal."

Analyze the demands and actions of the Bonus Army and the impact on public perceptions of government.

Evaluate Herbert Hoover’s response to the Great Depression and the limitations of voluntary relief efforts.

Explain how the Dust Bowl intensified the effects of the Depression for farmers and contributed to mass migration.

Describe the widespread unemployment, poverty, and social dislocation caused by the Great Depression.

Analyze how economic weaknesses in banking, agriculture, and income inequality contributed to the onset of the Great Depression.

Explain the causes of the stock market crash of 1929 and its role in triggering the Great Depression.

Discussion Questions

Before the Game

1. How can fear change what people do with money—and why might that make a crisis worse? 2. Why can a bank fail if too many people withdraw money at once? 3. When resources are limited, what kinds of tradeoffs do families have to make to survive?

After the Game

1. Which choice you made had the biggest impact on your family’s outcome, and what chain of consequences followed from it? 2. What was the hardest tradeoff you faced (food, cash, health, truck condition, morale, hope), and why did you prioritize what you did? 3. How did your family’s experience connect to larger Great Depression events and responses (banking crisis, unemployment relief, Dust Bowl, New Deal programs)?

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Game Details

Difficulty

Content Integration

Lexile Level

N/A

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