MathTechnology

Supply-Chain Crisis Simulation

Grades 6-860-75 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Students run a small factory through a pretend supply-chain crisis. They juggle stock, shipping delays, and risky choices as things go wrong. It is a lively, number-driven look at why store shelves sometimes go empty.

Budget levels

Amazon prices checked Oct 9-10, 2026 and may change

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Quick Start

Digital downloads only.

$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.

Student time: one class period, one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one class period on a single day.

Scale back: Fit it into a shorter period, use fewer effects, or run a demo instead of a build.

Scale up: Add one extra effect, or spread the share-out across another day.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

Earth impact tracker sheetPrintinguse what you have
printed fact sheet on population and resource usePrintinguse what you have
graph paperBorrow or school hasuse what you have

Full Experience

Required materials for the class.

$0 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one school day.

Scale back: Fit the build into one period with fewer effects.

Scale up: Spread the work across days, or add more effects.

Total Transformation

The bigger kit, with every optional item included.

$0 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day (one session, one-day event).

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one session, a one-day event.

Scale back: Shorten the event, or run a demo for a smaller audience.

Scale up: Spread the build and the event across days, or invite a bigger audience.

Materials

Stage boxes or cards (material, factory, warehouse, store); Tokens or counters for stock; Dice for the crisis roll; Recording sheet; Earth impact tracker sheet; printed fact sheet on population and resource use; graph paper

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change.

As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Stage boxes or cards
Stage boxes or cards (material, factory, warehouse, store)
No link
Colored counters set
Tokens or counters for stock
Shop
Dice set
Dice for the crisis roll
Shop
Recording sheet
Recording sheet
No link

Steps

Pick a product (smartphones, aluminum cans, or T-shirts) and research its raw materials (for example, metals mined from rock, cotton needing water, oil for plastic). Predict where a delay or shortage would hurt most.
Set up the supply chain: raw material extraction site, factory, warehouse, and store, with an Earth impact tracker for land disturbed, water used, and emissions per unit.
Run several rounds of normal demand, tracking stock at each stage and Earth impact totals.
Raise demand each round to represent population growth and higher per-person consumption, and record how extraction and impacts change.
Roll for a crisis like a port closing and adjust orders to keep shelves full, noting what extra extraction or shipping that causes.
Graph demand versus each impact and compare with real data on population and resource use (a printed fact sheet).
Write and present an argument with evidence on how rising population and consumption affect the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere, and suggest one change that would reduce the impact.

Standards mapped

NGSS · MS-ESS3-4
Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.