Early World History: Computer or Board Game: Roman Edition

This week, we begin our next unit on Rome: The Rise of Rome through Christendom. Students will be organized into groups of three to create either a board game or a computer game that teaches others about the important facets of the rise and fall of the Roman Republic and Empire. To create your game, you will use the following sources:

Eyewitness to History primary sources

Amy Chua's Day of Empire (Chapter 2: Tolerance in Rome's High Empire)

1. To construct the game, each group makes the initial decision whether to make a board game or a computer game. The board games may be inspired by the board games of your youth, you may use supplies such as figurines, game pieces, dice and unique cards, and you may organize your game in a transportable box such as is used for present giving. The computer games may easily use Scratch, which may of you learned to use in 6th grade in the middle school, or, depending on your own personal aptitude, perhaps another programming environment such as GameMaker or Unity. The computer science teachers might be willing to answer a question here or there, but they will not help you learn a new programming language or debug your games. In other words, do not choose the computer option unless you are very confident in your ability to proceed with the utmost independence.

2. You need to begin your research by reading the above sources and creating a time line of events in the rise and fall of the Roman Republic and Empire.

3. You need to decide on the necessary elements of your game, i.e., what would be necessary in terms of pieces to tell the story of the Romans.

4. You need to decide how to incorporate the historical evidence into your game, i.e., what would be necessary in terms of game design and structure to tell the story of the Romans.

5. You need to double-check that the game elements and the historical evidence are seamlessly integrated.

The GRADING RUBRIC is available here. 50 points.

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