Description:

This class will re-enact the great unseen intelligence battles of early American history, from Washington's spies to British double agents, using an RPGs (role playing game) custom designed by the instructor.

Real spying is less James Bond and more Sherlock Holmes. You follow clues and codes to lead you to secrets your enemies wish you did not know. Every country has secrets, and those must be defended, because knowing is half the battle. Students will be expected to learn about and practice code-breaking and try to encode messages to pass to their colleagues. Success will bring great advantage; failure could mean capture and death! We will examine the lives and techniques of real historical spies, adopt their methods and replicate them for ourselves, pitting one half of the class against the other using a modified version of the Pathfinder story-driven role playing system. Once students have uncovered the enemy's secrets, we will attempt to make use of this stolen information and learn just how much power there is in knowledge.

Topics in this Series: The History of Espionage, America's First Spies- Rev. War (Semester 1) and The History of Espionage, Modern Deception-WWII (Semester 2). Students continuing from first semester receive priority pre-registration for second semester.
Workload: Students should expect to spend 0-1 hours per week outside of class.
Assignments: Google Drive (period maps, photographs and recreations) and YouTube (videos) links will be e-mailed to parents/students for homework or supplemental investigation.
Assessments: Will not be given.
Credit: Homeschool families may wish to count this course as a component (partial) credit in History for purposes of a high school transcript.