PIONEERS The 5th grade EXCEL group will be using a simulation to vicariously participate in situations and events similar to those experienced by pioneers who headed west in wagon trains.  Students will face and solve problems such as floods, droughts, snakes, Indians, food shortages, and disease.  The events are a realistic view of what pioneer life was really like, why people chose to head west, and what happened to them as a result.  Students will work cooperatively with others and also individually.  There will be a research project due at the end of the first semester.