Project: teams of 4

Time: 8 weeks

Assignment: Make a game about the second world war in the Netherlands, the game has tol be usable for history teachers in high school. The game has to be played a short time during class.

 

We wanted to involve the whole class in the same game. We created a fictional Dutch village near the border of Germany. Our goal was to teach students about the history but also show them that making decisions in that time was very hard. Trying to rebel will have dire consequences, but cooperating will not get you any favours by the other villagers.

 

The game:

Starting up

On the first day every student can get the game on his/her phone. Everyone gets appointed a character with backstory and profession. The teacher has a version of their own where they can overview who is online and their score.

 

The days

Every day the teacher can “activate” the game once. When this happens, every students gets to see the newspaper article of that day. These articles are based on events that really happened during the second world war.

After reading the “event”, students have to make a choice that will impact their wellbeing, money or score (the score is however invisible to the students).

The teacher can base their class around the subject of the article.

Everyday there will be a new subject, 5 in total. A student has to try and survive all those days.

 

The end

At the end, all scores will be shown on the board of the classroom. Students who made decisions against the German oppressors will have their slider towards the Dutch flag, students who cooperated with the German oppressors will have their slider towards the German flag.

If the majority of students chose to cooperate, the village will stay under German control. However, if the majority of the students rebelled against them, they will be free of the oppressors on the last day.