Quarter(s): 4

Day(s): Wed

Open Spots: 1

By June 1864, the end was near for the Confederacy. All that stood between the Union Army and Richmond was a series of forts interconnected by trenches at Petersburg, to the south. This battle, like Vicksburg before it, was war on a scale that would not be seen again until WWI. The most famous battle site along the miles of trenches was the Battle of the Crater. Using explosives, the Union Army undermined the Confederate lines and blew up an entire fort, expecting to decisively win the battle in July. Unfortunately, unprepared units rushed into The Crater without knowing the full plan. They were stuck there when Confederates counter-attacked in a siege that would last nine more months, until late March 1865, just weeks before the Confederacy's final surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Using artistic model-making techniques, hand tools, and historical maps, students will each form a 10" X 14" shaped, foam diorama of a portion of a battlefield from the campaign. Students will each receive 1:72 scale miniature soldiers to populate their scene. Once individual projects are constructed, students will combine their dioramas alongside those of their classmates to create larger scenes. Students will spend the remainder of the quarter learning about the tactics and outcomes of the military engagement while playing a table-top strategy game. Student strategists will use a simplified version of the Fire and Fury gaming rule system for moving troops and equipment. The instructor will use maps and visual presentations to explain the historical background and circumstances leading up to the specific battle. Course documents, such as period maps, game rules and all other instructional media will be available via a Google Drive link which will be emailed to parents. There is a $25.00 materials fee payable to the instructor on the first day of class. Topics in this year's Civil War Series include: First Battle of Manassas (Quarter 1); The Anaconda Plan, Civil War Naval Battles (Quarter 2); The Atlanta Campaign and Sherman's March to the Sea (Quarter 3); and The Siege of Petersburg, the fall of Richmond (Quarter 4).

Quarter(s): 4

Day(s): Wed

Open Spots: 1

Students will engage in a hands-on 3D battle strategy game using the military dioramas that they make! In late 1944, the outcome of the Second World War was no longer in doubt, however, the ongoing fighting was just as lethal. Hitler was desperate to pull off a miraculous victory in the West, and he set his sight on the Ardennes, a "quiet" sector of the front in Luxembourg where the Allies had sent badly damaged units to recover from fierce fighting elsewhere. The Allies believed that Germany would not invade through the forest in the winter, especially with the dire circumstances they faced everywhere else. This was a miscalculation. Hitler used this opportunity to ram the last functioning units to attempt to "drive the Allies back into the sea" and take the port of Antwerp in a conflict known as The Battle of the Bulge. Using artistic model-making techniques, hand tools, and historical maps, students will each form a 10" X 14" shaped, foam diorama with landscape elements (hills, valleys, rivers, ridges, vegetation, airfields, etc) to represent a scene of a famous historical engagement. Students will each receive scale miniature naval ships to populate their scene. Once individual projects are constructed, students will combine their dioramas alongside those of their classmates to approximate the larger battlefield terrain. Students will spend the remainder of the quarter learning about the tactics and outcomes of the military engagement while playing a table-top strategy game. Student strategists will use a simplified version of the Axis and Allies gaming rule system for moving troops and equipment. Along with their classmates, students will see how this battle progressed and test different outcome scenarios that might have occurred with different battlefield choices. The instructor will use maps and visual presentations to explain the historical background and circumstances leading up to the specific battle. Course documents, such as period maps, game rules and all other instructional media will be available via a Google Drive link which will be emailed to parents. There is a $25.00 materials fee payable to the instructor on the first day of class. Topics in this year's series include: Pearl Harbor (Quarter 1), Guadalcanal (Quarter 2), D-Day (Quarter 3), and Battle of the Bulge (Quarter 4).