The Civic Mirror: A Social Studies Simulation for Classrooms

The program suits social studies and civics courses that deal with political, legal, economic and social dilemmas. Before the game starts, students take part in Nation Building events, where they learn how the simulation works and shape the identity of their country.

The role-playing stage runs in rounds called Years. Each Year consists of four in-class events called Seasons, and the teacher decides how many Seasons are played. Every country is a map of 36 hexagons, and a class lives in one country, so the actions of one student affect everybody. The map evolves as the simulation advances, showing the class's collective struggles, political debate and individual ups and downs, and each hex stands for something different about society. One citizen owns each hex, controls it and may develop it, so a choice by one student reaches the others, and debates over how owners handle their property follow naturally. The program also described a planned CM World, a space where teachers and students can watch other simulated countries, and released features that let a country create and broadcast its national identity. Students have to govern themselves to keep the country from sliding into chaos, which gives them a reason to join the political, civic and judicial events in the classroom.

Each participant also receives a hidden agenda, political, economic or ideological, that earns Status Points. The points are tallied at the end of every Year and performance evaluations follow. When the teacher ends the game, winners are announced.

The Civic Mirror website is online in November 2026 at civicmirror.com. Its overview page describes a simulation that turns classrooms into countries, students into citizens and teachers into 21st century educators, with families, government, court, economy and environment in each simulated country. Companion manuals and the website give teachers what they need to run it.

The site offers a free trial, and the five-week unit plan is free the first time a teacher runs it. Pricing details sit on a separate FAQ page. The site credits Action-Ed Learning Resources, Inc., with content copyright from 2006 to 2026.

The Seasons, the hex map and the CM World feature that the program announced in 2014 are not repeated on the current overview page, so those details date from the 2014 description.