Want to design games on rural and Indigenous history using primary sources but missed the sign-up last time?

If you can’t make it to Minot, you can still attend on line. I will send you a zoom link. Just sign up below.

You’re in luck! We’re starting our third (and last) cohort on April 25th and it ends just in time for the Grand Entry for the MSU powwow. For attendees over 60 miles from campus, we can provide you a hotel room overnight plus reimburse you for mileage (up to $200).

You can sign up here. Not only is there no cost to participate but you can get graduate credit for attending all three workshops and submitting a lesson.

We will work with educators to create games and lessons teaching Indigenous and rural history using primary sources. Of course, if these lessons included math or science, we would be thrilled. You can see the game developed with the first cohort, Warrior Vets, here.

Session 1: In-person at Minot State University , 4-6:30 pm Central Time. You can also attend on zoom. Professor Juliana Taken Alive will discuss the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings and North Dakota Native American Essential Understandings standards. Dr. Annmaria De Mars will demo the latest game in progress with cohort 2 – STEM on the Lewis and Clark Trail and Dr. Dan Conn will give examples of lesson plans using primary sources to teach about agriculture. Following the workshop session, we’ll go over to the MSU powwow where you can take videos and photos to create your own primary sources.

Sessions 2 and 3 will be virtual. At session 1, we’ll decide on the dates and times this summer that will be convenient for most attendees. If you have to miss a session due to illness, child illness or your spouse won the Nobel Peace Prize, don’t worry, we will have these recorded and send you links for all activities so you can catch up.

Any questions? Email annmaria@7generationgames.com

What’s that link to sign up again? You can sign up here.

Did you miss the final session of the Co-designing games to teach Indigenous and rural history course? Just curious to know what the course is like?

We don’t do the exact same presentation every time and, of course, different cohorts have different participants and interests, which leads to different discussions.

Here for your viewing/ listening pleasure are all the videos from the last session with our very first cohort.

• Some instructor and cohort introductions, housekeeping issues – how to get graduate credit. If you need the syllabus or link for registration for credit, email – https://youtu.be/Kjr64yysGf0?si=ykZ-rTu3rksQtxg2 
• What’s in your final project? We discuss the requirements and present an example of a lesson where students research rural artifacts https://youtu.be/d_pswtTixno?si=k-KcX2kQeZ2bl_8v  
• Game design – Seeds of Sustainability Dr. Daniel Conn presents an example game design based on Buffalo Bird Woman’s garden and including traditional songs as primary sources. Zac King provides his perspective on non-Indigenous developers or game designers creating games around Indigenous culture and stories. https://youtu.be/-tenawyendM?si=ccoJn8bqcrZzyWzJ
• Lesson example – Dr. Dan Conn gives a lesson example for middle school using the Seeds of Sustainability game and learning about Hidatsa culture, specifically their agriculture along the Missouri River. Dr. Annmaria De Mars discusses choices in what should be in a lesson and what topics are appropriate for different grade levels. She doesn’t have definitive answers but she made some decisions about including positive stories and role models in the younger grades and putting off the more nuanced and complex histories until middle school at the earliest. https://youtu.be/MPeFFoWOXgw?si=AA_J47nE9bhWMDgq
• What happens next – course wrap up: Dr. Dan Conn talks about the importance of curriculum, how much we value your feedback. Dr. Annmaria De Mars shows an example of another game about saving seeds that was coincidentally done as part of a US – New Zealand game jam. She also discusses the fact that not everything is appropriate for a game and that just because your idea hasn’t made it into a game yet, doesn’t mean you won’t see it in the future. https://youtu.be/wo0Hpj60tkg?si=ov54nJBPthKo8AVE

What makes this game special?

First of all, your students may be the first kids in the world to play it! This was made as part of the Global Game Jam, an annual challenge in which developers make a game over a weekend. Yes, we started on Friday night and released the game on Sunday. 

 (Read to the end for a second feature that we hope you don’t notice.)

As well as our in-house game testers, we do have a focus group of actual kids who play our games but, being kids, they were busy this weekend with important things like Cub Scouts and meeting their new baby cousin. Since, as part of the game jam, we had to release the game on Sunday, we thought it might be fun for some classrooms to be the first kids in the world to play a game.

Lesson:

A fourth-grade Common Core standard is:

Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

Even if your state has not adopted Common Core, we are guessing that you teach something similar. In my experience, students are more motivated and excited about an assignment when it has a real world application.  

Here is one recommended assignment . Feel free to copy and modify it to suit your class.

Objective: We are going to be one of the first classes in the world to play a new game. Write an opinion piece about the video game “Follow the Bubbles.” Explain what you liked and didn’t like about the game and provide recommendations for improvement.

1. First, pass out the assignment in advance so students can be thinking about this as they play the game.
2. Have students play the game, Follow the Bubbles.
3. If you think it would be more motivating for your students to really send their opinions to the developers and get written feedback, you are welcome to email admin@7generationgames.com with their papers attached. You can even take pictures on your phone and text us at (310) 804-9553 and we will respond to your class. We won’t grade your papers (sorry) but we will send a response to each suggestion and let you know if we are working on it.

Content taught or reviewed in the game

The mathematics in Follow the Bubbles is multiplication of one-digit numbers, multiplication of two-digit numbers and division. In two mini-games (tic-tac-toe and caves and trees), they need to answer math problems to win. This is a review of mathematics students should already know, simply practice to retain information.

Social Studies content includes discussion of primary sources and examples of primary sources from the Lewis and Clark expedition. There are three hangman games where students need to guess a vocabulary word related to the expedition or primary sources.

What else makes this game special?

As we mentioned, we made this game over a weekend, but that’s not what’s special about it. We created it to be equally accessible to students who were visually impaired, hearing impaired or have a reading disability. To design the game, we worked with a teacher for visually impaired students who is herself blind. We started with what games her students could play. Then, we tested the entire game with a screen reader. For students who have a reading disability, we added a speaker icon to almost every page that reads the text in the voice of one of the characters. This feature can also be used by visually impaired students. For hearing impaired students, information and instruction on each page is given in text as well.