AP American Government - Mr. Graham Social Studies



Foundations of American Government

Board Game

Overview:

Teams of 4 will be chartered to create a board game that demonstrates their understanding of the Foundations of American Government.

Criteria:

• The game rules are written clearly and sequenced in logical order.

• The game components, craftsmanship and presentation are appropriate, professional, and visually attractive for market.

• The design of the game incorporates fundamental principles and philosophical foundations of the American Political System, including elements from one or more of the following: the Declaration of Independence, the U. S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights (Your information must be TRUE and have NO MISTAKES.)

• The game components teach as well as demonstrate knowledge of fundamental principles and philosophical foundations of the American Political System.

• The game contains a proper mixture of both strategy and luck.

• The game fosters competition among the participants.

• The game must be marketable (in other words, visually creative, fun, and competitive).

• Other requirements

o The game can be played by 4 (or more) people in one class period.

o The game does not require unreasonable amounts of knowledge in order to play but must demonstrate the scholarship of the game creators. If the game contains questions for the players to answer, they may not be obscure trivia or nonsense type questions (“How many flags are in our classroom?”).

Models:

Teams may want to create an original game or may want to base their game on commercially available games. Components from commercially available board games are worth considering.

The “Trivial Pursuit” Model

Players have to answer questions in order to advance in the game. Having players answer questions about government and politics could be an element in who gets to be POTUS. However, there is no sequential order to the game, and not much strategy.

The “Life” or “Chutes and Ladders” Model

These kinds of games are nicely sequenced; they follow a basic pattern but also allow for outside events to happen to players. (“Campaign aide leaks memo to the press; go back three spaces.”) However, they can be pretty close to games of luck.

The “Monopoly” Model

The strategy involved is a nice plus, but be wary of open-ended games; they take too long to play. The money supply aspect to the game is appropriate for something like elections, but also one that complicates the game considerably. The Chance and Community Chest Card concept could be modified to include outside events as well as demonstrate knowledge of concepts. (“Fundraiser is a stunner! Collect $500” or “Opponent makes a gaffe in the debate, advance 3 spaces.”)

The Chess Model

DO NOT DESIGN A PURE STRATEGY GAME. You may as well go study Government in college and then sign up to work for a real U.S. political campaign in 2012 and make it a career. When you have figured out how to capture all of the strategy involved in politics into a board game, please let me as well as the American people know about it.

Other Considerations and Questions:

• Designing a game where the players compete directly against one another is inherently more complex than designing one where the players compete with the game. Be careful about trying to make the perfect game and ending up with a confusing mess.

• Be sure that there are no “dead ends” in the game.

• How will you determine the winner? Is it the last person in the game? If so, how will others be eliminated? Is it the first one to the finish line? If so, how is advancement obtained?

• What materials do you need? (Dice? Tokens? Cardstock?)

• How are you going to divide up the work among team members? Do you need to do some “homework” to complete your game on time?

Assessment:

Your game will be graded through playing it in class and grading it according to the rubric (see below). Plan accordingly. This project should be fun and challenging.

Foundations of American Government

Board Game Rubric

Team being evaluated: _______________________________________________________________________________

Evaluators: _________________________________________________________________________________________

Game Day

Games will be set up at stations throughout the classroom. Each team will be provided with a rubric for each game. Using a “round robin” system, teams will move as a group to each game. The evaluating team will read the rules of the game, examine the game board and components, and “play” the game. The evaluating team will then use the rubric to rate the game. Once complete, the rubric is to be turned in to the teacher and the team moves to the next game station, and so on.

Remember, in order to fairly assess each game, the evaluating team must not deviate from the rubric.

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Criterion: The rules are written clearly and sequenced in a logical order.

|1 Missing |2 Weak |3 Pretty Good |4 Strong |5 Amazing |Teacher’s Rating |

| | | | | | |

Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________

Criterion: The game’s components, craftsmanship and presentation are appropriate, professional, and visually attractive for market.

|1 Missing |2 Weak |3 Pretty Good |4 Strong |5 Amazing |Teacher’s Rating |

| | | | | | |

Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________

Criterion: The game’s essential design incorporates fundamental principles and philosophical foundations of the American Political System, including elements from one or more of the following: the Declaration of Independence, the U. S. Constitution, or the Bill of Rights.

|1 Missing |2 Weak |3 Pretty Good |4 Strong |5 Amazing |Teacher’s Rating |

| | | | | | |

Comments __________________________________________________________________________________________

Criterion: The game includes some strategy or knowledge in addition to luck and it fosters competition among the players.

|1 Missing |2 Weak |3 Pretty Good |4 Strong |5 Amazing |Teacher’s Rating |

| | | | | | |

Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________

Criterion: The game demonstrates the creator’s KNOWLEDGE of elements from one or more of the following: the Declaration of Independence, the U. S. Constitution, or the Bill of Rights.

|1 Missing |2 Weak |3 Pretty Good |4 Strong |5 Amazing |Teacher’s Rating |

| | | | | | |

Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________

Criterion: The game TEACHES players about elements from one or more of the following: the Declaration of Independence, the U. S. Constitution, or the Bill of Rights.

|1 Missing |2 Weak |3 Pretty Good |4 Strong |5 Amazing |Teacher’s Rating |

| | | | | | |

Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________

Criterion: The game is overall creative, interesting, informative, challenging and fun to play.

|1 Missing |2 Weak |3 Pretty Good |4 Strong |5 Amazing |Teacher’s Rating |

| | | | | | |

Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________

Evaluator’s Rating ______________________ Teacher’s Rating __________________________

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