Cardboard Classroom: Bringing the Board Game Renaissance to Class
Session Abstract
Maintaining student engagement can be a struggle for a teacher of any level and though teachers have been trying to capture students’ attention with fun and games for years, “Review Jeopardy!” is nothing more than an uninspired imitation of a game that arbitrarily awards points for correct answers. Cardboard Classroom is a project to develop board game modules that are not class-specific and can be applied to almost any curriculum. Board games are in the midst of a renaissance and have moved far beyond the inane time-fillers of Monopoly and Life; new classics like Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne offer players meaningful choices that impart critical thinking, deductive reasoning, strategy, cooperation, and weighing risks against rewards. Cardboard Classroom allows students to engage these skills while simultaneously learning or reinforcing content for class. This inside look into the development of Cardboard Classroom will demonstrate two successful game designs as well as a failed iteration of a design in progress in order to explore what works, what does not, and why. It will also share data collected from student participants regarding their perceived levels of engagement and retention during and after playing the games.
Cardboard Classroom: Bringing the Board Game Renaissance to Class
Maintaining student engagement can be a struggle for a teacher of any level and though teachers have been trying to capture students’ attention with fun and games for years, “Review Jeopardy!” is nothing more than an uninspired imitation of a game that arbitrarily awards points for correct answers. Cardboard Classroom is a project to develop board game modules that are not class-specific and can be applied to almost any curriculum. Board games are in the midst of a renaissance and have moved far beyond the inane time-fillers of Monopoly and Life; new classics like Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne offer players meaningful choices that impart critical thinking, deductive reasoning, strategy, cooperation, and weighing risks against rewards. Cardboard Classroom allows students to engage these skills while simultaneously learning or reinforcing content for class. This inside look into the development of Cardboard Classroom will demonstrate two successful game designs as well as a failed iteration of a design in progress in order to explore what works, what does not, and why. It will also share data collected from student participants regarding their perceived levels of engagement and retention during and after playing the games.
