When I was in school, I had a few opportunities to play and design games. Most of the games we played were more like simulations (of the United Nations, of living on Mars, of the electoral system, etc). I have fond memories of one game design assignment in which most groups created your standard roll-and-move style game, but our group created a full farming game with three elevation tiers and an accompanying app (on a TI-83 calculator).
When Stonemaier Games was getting off the ground with the release of Viticulture in 2013 and Euphoria in 2014, I started getting occasional requests from teachers for me to donate games to their classrooms and after-school programs. My general response was to provide a discount, as money was really tight back then (this is a confession, not an excuse for a lack of generosity).
Over the years, I’ve said yes more and more often to classroom requests (full game donations, not discounts), which have particularly grown since I added a form on our website for those who serve underrepresented and marginalized communities to request game donations. Through that form and other educators who have contacted me by email, we’ve received 200+ requests and sent around 500 games to classrooms, after-school programs, and other organizations in the last few years alone.
So that’s one thing: If you’re a publisher who wants to support educators with your games, put a form on your website. I think that really helps.
But what about impact? Do these games actually make a difference? Which games are best for the classroom?
Sometimes I hear back from the educators and donation recipients with feedback about the games. This is incredibly helpful, as I’m always learning which of our games best serve people of different ages. Stefan at UnboxEd has been particularly insightful; below are a few quotes he recently shared with me (with permission to share them here):
“While you’d think cooperative games would be better for kids, we’ve found that competitive games solve the most immediate problem that students who doubt their intelligence find the quickest path to self-efficacy in ruining the game for the rest of their team.”
“Red Rising and Rolling Realms were the clear winners! Rolling Realms was fun and quick to set up and easy to jump in and out of, and they love dry erase anything. I think having their own special writing instrument gives them a sense of agency. Dry erase markers are usually something only teachers get to use. And the art style of Red Rising was very appealing to the kids. Plus they loved tinkering with all the bits and bobs, and gameplay-wise, the repetitive core loop and patterns were easy to recognize yet challenging enough for them to strive to master. They tend to really enjoy card-based games — again, I think ‘possessing’ a hand of something all their own gives them that sense of agency.”
“We’ve recorded higher outcomes in returning versus new students, especially in Persistence, Empathy and Engagement; significant increases in Problem Solving, Engagement and Imagination for all students; and a 100% increase in Learning Objective Mastery from the beginning to the end of the semester.”
“The impact on Collaboration and Social Skills has been just as impressive. Your games have encouraged students to plan and accomplish both common and competitive goals. We’ve measured increased Communication, Negotiation, and Empathy as they interact during gameplay.”
Stefan mentioned to me that he plans to update the following chart (and others) over time on this page.
The one other request I get from classrooms is for me to participate in a live Q&A (typically over Zoom, but sometimes in person). I’ve found that unless the moderator is really, really good, live remote discussions (one person speaking to 10 or more other people) don’t work well. There’s just too much disconnect, and engagement is difficult.
However, I’ve found a similar method that works far better, in my opinion: The educator can compile a list of questions (some from them, some from the students) and send them to me, and I’ll film a video answering those questions. The nice thing about these pre-recorded videos is that the teacher can pause the video for discussion or breaks; plus, I can record it on my flexible schedule (there isn’t much room for error when you need to be live at a specific day and time). Also, I can later post the video on our YouTube channel, like this new video:
These are a few ways and reasons that we at Stonemaier Games try to support classrooms and youth. I’m sharing this in case it gives you some ideas or if you have any ideas to share for this topic. Thanks!
***
If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.
13 Comments on “Games in the Classroom”
Leave a Comment
If you ask a question about a specific card or ability, please type the exact text in your comment to help facilitate a speedy and precise answer.
Your comment may take a few minutes to publish. Antagonistic, rude, or degrading comments will be removed. Thank you.
That is so great to hear about the success with playing games in the classroom! I will add that in a slightly different realm, I’m having a huge success with my own kids homeschooling with playing board games regularly throughout our school day. We use them as brain breaks and boding time, and I’ve also used them as learning opportunities- not just for the obvious like problem solving or math, but they’ve led us down wonderful rabbit holes when we seek out more info about the artists, designers, or the history behind the theme. This year we are going to see if we can get a small club going with our other homeschooling friends, to share our love of the hobby and work on more problem solving skills together.
My 9yo’s current favorite Stonemaier is Scythe, but Expeditions is growing on him. I think Rolling Realms is the only one we don’t have yet, but after reading this, I’m thinking about grabbing it for the homeschooling kids!
I’m glad to hear that about games and home schooling, Kendra!
First, thank you, thank you, thank you!
My wife is a teacher and always looks for fun innovative ways to engage her students. Yesterday was the first day for the year and she used UNO to discuss the standard rules, those that are school wide, and house rules, those that apply to a specific classroom. The other classes were bored through PowerPoint and lecture. We shall see what the outcome is but my wife already got feedback from a parent that their son is really excited about science.
I love Stonemaier games and now I want to buy more of them. I just got Red Rising and love it. I read all the books a couple years ago, great job capturing the essence of the stories.
Thanks Brad! I’m glad to hear that about UNO and Red Rising.
Here is a comment for this post from Dorothy:
Kudos for Stonemaier BIPOC and Educational Support❣️
And special thanks for the introduction to multi-talented Stefan McNinch, Founder & President of UnboxEd, whose mission I passionately share—just what I have been seeking!
Dorothy
I taught from 2000 to 2018, and I plan to get back on teaching soon. So I say this with my teacher’s heart: thank you for this initiative.
I’m glad we can contribute! Thanks, Alberto!
I run a board gaming club at my son’s primary school and it has really helped children who have been struggling with socialisation post COVID. It also helps children who aren’t keen on sports to interact and co-operate/compete and obtain a similar feeling but in a different environment. Th school is tiny – only 60 children in total from ages 3 – 11 – so my board game collection has become theirs! It’s wonderful to see the children really enjoy playing and developing skills which compliment their learning but also add something they do not get in the usual lessons.
It’s wonderful that you’re taking the initiative to run the gaming club at your son’s school, Tora!
Jamey, I teach a college class – Tabletop Games & Leadership. We have a blog where students primarily reflect on games (https://sites.miamioh.edu/tabletop) but occasionally do other assignments as well.
For the first several years of the class’s existence (it has been around since 2017) we did pre-and-post tests to see if the class had an impact as more than the “fun” class students took. We discovered that we were having an impact in a number of areas including students acceptance of and learning other students identities, understanding of leadership concepts, their confidence, ability to teach through the use of games, and major impacts on their understandings of games.
The class is focused on different aspects of leadership and game design – it can be used as one of the electives for both our campus game design and community based leadership programs, so I balance the two parts.
I love the support for and the understanding of the importance of games for learning. I’ll actually be in St. Louis this fall with Lydia Rae at a conference for using games for learning. Not sure if she’s ever mentioned it. It is a great conference where we look at different ways to use games for learning. (Nasaga.org for anyone interested if you read my comment) Maybe I’ll get lucky and you and I will get to chat while I’m there. Maybe sometime I’ll talk to you/work with you on a video about your views of and different aspects of how leadership applies both in your design and the company you manage.
Thank you for helping continue to build and stress the importance of games and education.
I love this, JS! Thank you for sharing. I’m glad you collected that data. That’s great to hear about the St. Louis conference with Lydia–she’s very passionate about games in education.
As a former classroom teacher, I think
This is awesome! Thanks for helping bring games and all the hard and soft skill-building they can provide to kids.
Thanks Julie!