Ball State University students have created a game designed for fourth grade students to help them better understand just how dangerous it was for runaway slaves to make their way north along the Underground Railroad.
Morgan's Raid
"Students will learn about the different attitudes of people who will help them or turn them in, as well as the physical hardships of traveling that distance while exposed to the elements. They will learn about the physical geography and the dangers. The game is designed to be very challenging, so most students probably will not make it to freedom the first time they play."
The project started last summer when Morris' classes began to develop the game through research and writing, and then tested it with fourth-grade students. This fall, Gestwicki is leading the digital production effort through his game programming class.
When released in early 2013, the game with curriculum materials written by students in an elementary social studies methods class will align with common core state standards for fourth grade social studies classes and related teaching materials in schools in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky.
The game is the second created in immersive learning classes under the direction of Morris and Gestwicki. In 2011, their team released an educational computer game focusing on what today is known as Morgan's Raid, a highly publicized incursion by Confederate cavalry into Indiana and Ohio in 1863. The raid is named for the commander of the Confederates, Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan.
