City Generator as a Social Studies Tool

http://citygen.crystalballsoft.com/

This site offers a customizable city generator that creates detailed facts about the population, size, imports and exports, buildings, geographical resources, marketplaces, and nearly 100 professions.

This could become a great, high interest tool for developing medieval era vocabulary.

Upper Elementary, as well as Jr. High and High School students could use this by:
1.Generating their city's stats
2.Comparing stats with their classmates
3.Constructing a visual map that shows all or some major features of their city
4.Answering a written series of questions regarding their cities
5.Presenting their maps to the class, remembering to mention major features

An Example:
Faron

Community Size:Small Town
Population:1,600 Adults
Size:42.65 Acres
Population Density (Adults/Acre):37.52 Adults/Acre
Races:Elf (576); Human (320); Halfling (288); Dwarf (160); Gnome (112); Half Elf (80); Half Orc (48); Other (16)

Gold Piece Limit:800.00
Wealth:64,000.00
Income for Lord(s)/King(s):640.00
Magic Resources:3,200.00

Imports:Horses
Exports:Fish, Stone and Wood
Famous:Pockets, Rituals and Stubby
Infamous:Fish

# of Wards:10
# of Buildings:744
# of Power Centers:3
# of Guilds:1

Gate Area (one of many areas) (only some are listed here)
4.51 Acres; 81 Structures; Inside Walls Admin (B) : 2 B House (B) : 2 Bath (B) : 3 Corral (B) : 1 Hospital (B) : 5 House (B) : 9 Inn (B) : 6 Inn (C) : 5 Religious (B) : 1 Shop : Dairy Sellers (C) : 1 Shop : Furriers (B) : 1 Shop : Haberdashers (C) : 1 Shop : Tailors (B) : 1 Stable (B)

Professions (only some are listed here)
Acrobats & Tumblers : 1 Apprentices : 27 Architects : 1 Artists : 2 Astrologers : 1 Bakers : 4 Barbers : 6 Basket Makers : 9 Bathers : 1 Beggers : 260 Blacksmiths : 1 Bricklayers : 1 Buckle Makers : 1 Butchers : 2 Caravaner : 5 Carpenters : 7 Chandlers : 3 Clergy members : 37 Clothiers & Used : 12 Clothiers, Used : 2 Cobblers : 17 Cooks : 4 Coopers : 4

In short...
This is a vast and perhaps overwhelming tool, but I can see some great potential for educational benefits as well.

Source: http://citygen.crystalballsoft.com/ on 2/3/10