TROY professor’s historical board game links academics and gaming
TROY professor’s historical board game links academics and gaming
TROY professor’s historical board game links academics and gaming
By Savanah Weed
March 20, 2023
Summary
Troy University history professor Dr. Scout Blum has merged game playing and academics with her newest creation, a board game called Rising Waters, which aims to give students a better understanding of one of the most destructive disasters in US history and the themes of racism and perseverance.
Rising Waters is a multi-player board game centered around the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 that killed hundreds and displaced around 700,000 people.
"As I started studying, I thought it would make an interesting board game since I had just started using those in the classroom, and there really were very few board games that dealt with these issues," she said.
The game has a vast card system with cards representing more flooding, the ability to build levees to protect their towns and level-up cards that allow players to move around the board faster and become more skilled.
The Zenobia Award is an organization dedicated to recognizing historical board games, but also game makers in underrepresented populations, like women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Blum has been part of the History and Philosophy department at TROY since 2000 and also teaches a "History through Games" class-that counts as a general study requirement-and a "History of Game Design" class.
"It's a very difficult skill to write clearly and concisely, so to have kids think about directions and writing rules for a game that skill can be applied to many different areas of academics and life in general."
Reference
Weed, S. (2023, March 20). Troy professor's historical board game links academics and gaming. Troy Today. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://today.troy.edu/news/troy-professors-historical-board-game-links-academics-and-gaming/