Quarter(s): 1

Day(s): Thu

Open Spots: 1

Learn history and geography through hands-on, interactive play rather than by studying flat, dull maps! Many great games feature play on map-based boards that can be used as teaching tools. Visual and kinesthetic learners will remember where Mongolia and Madagascar are when they have amassed miniature armies there! The instructor will use board games from his personal collection as teaching tools. In addition, he creates custom boards to use with modified game rules and playing pieces.

First quarter, students will learn about ancient civilizations and the cradle of mankind featuring Mesopotamia and settlements throughout the Fertile Crescent on a custom-designed version of the game Risk. The class will be able to identify and locate the kingdoms of Babylonia, Assyria, Sumer, Akkad, Elam, and Phoenicia dotted with the early cities of Ur, Ninevah, Babylon, and Uruk to understand what is now the Middle East. The game continues week-to-week with students reviewing the geography as they set the game back up. For each era and conflict, students learn which countries were engaged and where they were located, capitals and key cities, shared borders and boundaries, and prominent geographic features and waterways. They gain an understanding of why countries were at war and how those events influenced history and the modern map.

There is a $15.00 supply fee due to the instructor on the first day of class for custom-printed maps and shared class materials. Topics in this Series include: Ancient Civilizations/ Bronze Age (1st Quarter); Ancient Greece (2nd Quarter); Ancient Rome (3rd Quarter); and Medieval Times (4th Quarter).

Quarter(s): 1

Day(s): Thu

Open Spots: 1

Mega Maps is an interactive examination of the Age of Discovery, a period from the 15th to the 17th century in Europe. Against the backdrop of a giant, classroom-sized map, students will follow the European explorers who embarked on voyages of discovery, mapped new territories, established trade routes, and encountered new cultures and peoples. Students will engage in an inquiry-based investigation of the prominent explorers, learning about their finds and failures to gain an understanding of world history and geography, region-by-region. The class will cooperatively create the mega map adding features and details week by week as their understanding of the region expands. All students will contribute to coloring countries, depicting demarcations, rendering rivers, sketching seas, mapping mountains, delineating deserts, situating cities, crafting clay contours, and fashioning famous landmarks. The custom mega map will serve as a giant game board for in-class simulations, scavenger hunts, strategy games, and more.

First quarter, the class will follow explorers like Vespucci, Cortes, Pizarro, da Gama and Cabral to Central and South America. There, these explorers and conquistadors led significant expeditions of Brazil and eastern South America and conquered the ancient empires of the Aztecs in Mexico and Incas in Peru. The class will learn about their goals of finding riches like gold and silver, claiming territories, and spreading their faith. They will trace the voyages and expeditions of these explorers on the mega map to understand the establishment of colonies, the exchange of goods and ideas between continents, and the intermingling of diverse cultures.

There is a $15.00 supply fee due payable to the instructor on/before the start of class. Topics in this Series: South & Central America (Quarter 1); North America & the Caribbean (Quarter 2); Africa (Quarter 3), and Asia (Quarter 4).