For those who haven't seen it, check out the Reacting to the Past project (http://reacting.barnard.edu/) This is a well developed and funded group that develops role playing games based around historical events. Each student takes on the role of one of the people in the period and the students then run the game through a number of class periods.
The games cover every thing from the development of democracy in Athens to the removal of evolution from the Kansas high school science standards ten years ago. Most are 3-5 weeks in length, although a NSF-funded project has developed a number of shorter science based games that can fit more easily into a science based curriculum. There are about 30 of them in playable state right now, with a number more being developed.
I'm currently using two of them in my seminar course: a ~1.5 class period one around the question "Is Pluto a planet?" which I use mostly to introduce the idea and get an idea of the capability and enthusiasm of the students, and the ~4.5 week game built around the introduction of Darwin's Origin of Species.
They are somewhat overwhelming to run: there is a lot of prep time outside of class to get students to the point that they can handle their role without any professor input during class. (And honestly, some students fail at it) BUt in terms of engagement with a concept, they really seem to excel.
The games cover every thing from the development of democracy in Athens to the removal of evolution from the Kansas high school science standards ten years ago. Most are 3-5 weeks in length, although a NSF-funded project has developed a number of shorter science based games that can fit more easily into a science based curriculum. There are about 30 of them in playable state right now, with a number more being developed.
I'm currently using two of them in my seminar course: a ~1.5 class period one around the question "Is Pluto a planet?" which I use mostly to introduce the idea and get an idea of the capability and enthusiasm of the students, and the ~4.5 week game built around the introduction of Darwin's Origin of Species.
They are somewhat overwhelming to run: there is a lot of prep time outside of class to get students to the point that they can handle their role without any professor input during class. (And honestly, some students fail at it) BUt in terms of engagement with a concept, they really seem to excel.