Two Elon University professors recently led workshops and panels at the 12th Annual Reacting to the Past Institute at Barnard College in New York City.
Reacting to the Past consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; instructors advise and guide students and grade their oral and written work. It seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills.
Megan Squire, associate professor of computing sciences, hosted a workshop on The Trial of Galileo, leading conference participants through a two-day version of that educational role-playing game. She also participated a workshop on the recently completed game, Greenwich Village 1913: Suffrage, Labor, and the New Woman.
Tony Crider, associate professor of physics, hosted a workshop on his own game, The Pluto Debate: The International Astronomical Union Defines a Planet. He also participated in a workshop on the original Reacting to the Past game, The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.
During the concurrent sessions, Crider spoke on two panels about authoring Reacting to the Past games. In the first, “Game Design and Development” with Nick Proctor (Simpson College), he outlined the new procedures for Reacting to the Past games to go from concept to publication. In the second, “The Case for Chapter-Length Games” with David Henderson (Trinity College), he described several advantages to developing shorter games as part of the Reacting to the Past series.