National-Louis University Summer Enrichment Program for Kids Uses Games and Simulations
by Maureen Reed

12 year old Ellyn teams up with 11 year old Amartya to unite the Roman Empire under themselves as Caesar. They discussed the merits of building roads from their Macedonian power base to Italia versus improving the cities they control in Sicilia. Meanwhile, their opponents across the table, 12 year old Grant and 14 year old Mordechai were influencing the Senators in Rome to allocate funds for their navy. They engaged in a spirited risk-benefit analysis of the effects of taxing the populace so they could increase their army. Each team carefully weighed their options and decided on a strategy designed to give them the title of Caesar of the Roman Empire. Would economic development and construction projects produce a stronger civilization? Or was it really better to just conquer and exploit?

Such are the discussions generated in the classroom at Project 2007, an innovative program sponsored by the Center for Gifted on the Skokie, IL campus of National-Louis University. Project is one of their many programs designed to challenge the critical thinking of kids and stretch their creative efforts. Established in 1983, the Center for Gifted serves children who express high capacity for high performance in diverse areas of intelligence. Through creative teaching strategies, materials, and curricula, the Center’s programs offer unique, hands-on activities and inventive modes of participation.

For many years, games and simulations have been an integral part of their program.

Christopher Freeman is a math teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. He stresses deductive and inductive reasoning to his grade 6 – 12 students and actively searches for ways to encourage logic and reasoning in his students. He also loves teaching history. “If you want to learn how the world works” Chris says, “You have to understand someone else’s point of view. The simulation does this.”

Joan Franklin Smutny is the Director and Founder of the Center for Gifted at National-Louis University. Nationally recognized as a leader in field of gifted education, she strongly encourages critical and creative thinking through her programs and many published works. She also recognizes the critical thinking skills inherent in strategy games and their great appeal to students. “Games excite and motivate students. Games engage a student at the highest levels of thinking – problem solving, decision-making, interpreting and justifying.”

In 1991, Joan approved the first “War and Diplomacy” class. In this class Chris runs a type of game known as a simulation where students take the roles of key national leaders during the WWI and WWII eras. Chris has a specific purpose in mind when he starts. He wants his students to see history not as dry facts on a page, but as a series of choices of real people. He wants them to understand the points of view of each person and how their national interests shape their decisions.

Students begin by drawing a map of Europe showing the political boundaries in 1914. After they select which nation they wish to represent, they try to determine based purely on geographic considerations who would likely be their enemies and who would likely be their friends. As they discuss their decisions, Chris points out how recent history and, alas, race, also influences the alliances, and the stage for World War I is set.

To fight the war, each nation is given a page of information, some public knowledge, some for themselves alone. When the Artchduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, each nation follows its private directives, making decisions in accord with its own perceived national interest. Austria-Hungary, for example, is told to take any pretext to extend its empire to include Serbia. Russia, on the other hand, is told not to allow the Austrians to annex its Slavic brethren to the south. The Germans are told that they can and must occupy Paris before Russia has time to mobilize its forces. The quickest way to Paris is through Belgium. As the Germans march through, Belgium calls for help from Great Britain, and the war is enjoined. As the German player happily pushes the border on the classroom map toward Paris, the Russian player quietly begins an attack on Tannenberg in East Prussia. “You told me they couldn’t do that!” shouts the German player. “I lied–your intelligence was wrong” Chris replies, and the war bogs down into the most wretched trench warfare the world has ever seen.

The students apply their own critical reasoning skills to negotiate the international politics of the early 20th century. They engage the information and attack the historic problems with new energy because suddenly it matters to them. Suddenly, they are responsible for deciding issues of war and peace, life and death. Discussions are generated regarding the justice and wisdom of pivotal military and political decisions made historically. Students apply their creativity to create alternate historical paths that perhaps did not lead to the tragedies of the early 20th century. Chris is most proud of one of his students who, representing Austria-Hungary, was able to completely avert World War I by allowing Serbia to punish the Black Hand assassins themselves. They internalize the bare facts and deepen their understanding of the complexities of international war and diplomacy. According to Chris, “All this information becomes more real to (the students) because it affects them personally. Everybody reads about it but that’s different from doing it.”

The second week of class consists of reenacting key events in world politics from 1920 to 1942. The class emphasizes the failure of the League of Nations to oppose effectively the Japanese aggression against China in Manchuria in 1931 and the Italian aggression against Abyssinia in 1935, as well as the failure of the British and French to stop Hitler’s systematic violation of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. The basis of the course is Sir Winston Churchill’s history of World War II, The Gathering Storm, which Chris believes should be required reading for every American high school student.

Chris concludes his class with a week playing the strategy board game Axis & Allies. This popular WWII strategy game was originally published by Nova Games, a small northeastern publisher, then was republished by Milton Bradley in 1984. Since then, it has sold over two million copies and gathered a tremendous fan base in the board game world. It is considered a classic in modern day strategy games. The kids went wild – even the girls, who teamed up to beat the boys! In fact, the kids loved playing the simulation and the board game Axis & Allies so much, the begged for more.

The morning simulation class having proved very popular, five years ago Chris was invited to add an afternoon class in historical games. Chris called on his good friend Dale Ridder, an experienced gamer, geography teacher, and military historian, to co-teach the new class, to be called “Historic Games of Strategy and Diplomacy”.

In the afternoon class, the games (plural) are the main event. Several historic strategy games are played. One of the most popular games is Diplomacy, in which students reenact World War I but are not bound to the historical alliance structure. This game has no element of chance: all events are determined by the negotiations and decisions made by the players themselves.

Sometimes they play Empire Builder, a board game where you must build a railroad network across the United States on a geographically accurate game map showing cities and the distribution of natural resources. The students must make economic decisions on how to spend their game money for building track and choose which load to pick up and deliver for their greatest benefit. Sometimes they play Kingmaker, a game simulating the time of the War of the Roses in English history where students control factions of nobles and co-opt the royal heirs in an attempt to crown their own king. Sometimes they play Age of Imperialism, a board game where players use economics, exploration, technology, diplomacy and tactical battles to establish an empire during the 1830-1900 era. Yet another good game is Age of Empires, in which students colonize the New World.

Today twelve kids are sitting around a table playing Conquest of the Empire. Just as historically six Caesars vied to unite the Roman Empire under their rule, these students act in teams of two to outmaneuver the other Caesars and be crowned the one and only! Economics compete for the attention of the players with armies and navies, all the while influencing the Roman Senators who control the taxes. The populace must be cared for as well or they will rebel and make the student regret not paying them more attention!

The game usually plays only 4 – 6 players but Dale and Chris have discovered that teaming two students together to play one side offers many advantages. Not only does this promote teamwork and cooperation between the two students, it creates a group of 8 to 12 students at one table. This means less overall games to be managed by the teacher, enabling him to monitor and interact with the students more closely during play. This interaction is an important part of the learning experience as Dale and Chris quiz the students on their decision making process and solicit alternate perspectives and possibilities. Also, using 2 person teams is very pragmatic as these games usually take several days to complete and any single absence does not disturb the progress of the game significantly.

Dale likes the team process so much, he has adapted the rules of many games, including Axis & Allies, to allow for teams. He revised the rules of Axis & Allies Pacific (a theatre specific version of the classic board game) for six teams of two: the US, Australia, India, China, and the Netherlands.must cooperate to contain the Japanese expansion. The leaders have to make resource allocation decisions while the team members collectively put forth their proposals and best arguments for their particular strategy.

Dale and Chris have several suggestions for teachers who would like to include historical strategy games in their classroom. They say it is not necessary for the teacher to be an expert in the games before playing, but they should have played the game themselves a few times so they can teach the rules. Studies have shown that people learn games much quicker when they are verbally explained and demonstrated than when just reading rules, so the teacher should know the rules thoroughly and be prepared to clarify any rule questions.

From a practical point of view, it is helpful if the game board can remain in a safe place between class sessions; it can be very time consuming to record a position, put the game away, and restore the board the next day. It is also essential that the students be given responsibility for their actions, and that all members of one team be able to consult with each other freely and make joint decisions.

Dale and Chris suggest taking several days to play a game. The first day should focus on simply learning the rules.

The second classroom session should be a “dry run.” It is always useful to play at least one complete turn for practice. This will ensure that students understand the rules and manner of play and help avoid misunderstandings that can ruin the fun of a game.

They recommend that the assessment of the students be done informally during the game play sessions. Interacting with each student and challenging them to justify their decisions will enable the teacher to understand the student’s mastery of critical thinking skills and understanding of the rules/goals of the game. Winning or losing is not the important thing; the teacher should assess whether the student is planning and coordinating her movements. Is she considering alternate options? Is she budgeting her resources? Does she have a plan that she can articulate? Has she considered what will happen if her opponent takes a different course of action? All this critical thinking can be assessed verbally by the teacher.

However, a written self-evaluation and peer evaluation at the conclusion of the class can also be useful. Asking questions like “What did you learn? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? What would you do different the next time? What was something another player did well?” often brings out observations from the students that are insightful and penetrating. Dale received an evaluation response last year from one student who observed that “Russia really needs access to an ocean port.” That student demonstrated an understanding of a primary Russian foreign policy objective for the last 300 years! He now has an insight into the causes and motivations of international relationships that he didn’t have before playing the historical strategy board game.

12 year old Ellyn and 11 year old Amartya are benefiting from Joan Smutny’s vision for teaching creative and critical thinking. They are growing and maturing under Chris Freeman’s capable tutelage. They are exploring and learning from Dale Ridder’s expertise. But Ellyn and Amartya don’t know that. They are just having fun playing a game.