Age of Empires

Age of Empires is a game with 3 base versions and multiple expansion packs that allow users to take control of different civilizations and do battle. The different editions of the game focus on different aspects of history. The first version focuses mostly on the world before Rome, The second game focuses on the world while Monarchies were the prevailing style of government, and the third game focusing on the exploration and revolution era.

The reason why the game can be used in teaching history is the fact that it is a civilization simulator. Depending on the style of game being played (campaign or free for all) players are required to accomplish numerous goals to achieve victory. They also must start with low resources and advance through what the game calls "ages". Ages are similar to periods of history in the first game players start in the Stone Age and must advance through to the Iron Age. As the ages progress, the technology available to the player improves.

Another great aspect of the game is that the available technologies are limited based on which civilization you choose. If you pick one of the native American tribes you do not have access to elephant warriors or iron weapons at first. Also some civilizations gain technologies prior to others based on when they would have obtained it historically. Also each civilization has a special unit that only they can have and it is based on something unique to the civilization, for example the British have longbow men and the Vikings have berserkers.

Another thing that players must navigate is resources and population. The game has a very low population limit to start and players must build housing in order to build more units, however the game has a maximum of 200 units and once reached you can't build anymore soldiers or peasants. It forces players to decide if they want to have enough peasants to keep stockpiling resources or if they want to sacrifice production for more soldiers.

Players may also choose to build  alliances with other either human or computer civilizations and depending on previous actions, the treaty is accepted or rejected.

One of the more overarching aspects of the game is Campaign mode. Campaign mode allows players to take control of a specific civilization and go through levels based on the civilizations history. In the campaign for the Mongols, the player takes control of Genghis Kahn and goes through the rise of the Mongols. In the French campaign the player takes control of Joan of Arc. The third game changes more to an alternate history view of the world with the player fighting against an organization known as "The Circle" while taking part in historical events such as the French and Indian war and the American Revolution.

The many uses of SeaHawk starring Errol Flynn

Filmed at the height of World War 2, the movie SeaHawk tells the story of Captain Thorpe and English Privateer who is based off of the famous pirate Sir Francis Drake. Thorpe, a privateer of Queen Elizabeth sails the seas in his ship the Albatross. In an attempt to weaken the Spanish empire, and thus derail them from attacking England, he sets off to the New World in an attempt to intercept the Spanish Treasure fleet. During the attempt, he and his men are captured and sentenced to work on Spanish ships for the rest of their lives. While serving his sentence Thorpe discover the Spanish plans to invade England via the Spanish Armada. After escaping his imprisonment and fighting his way back to England, Thorpe is knighted by Queen Elizabeth and gives her the evidence needed to justify the building of a large English navy to protect England.

While the subjects that this film can be used to teach may seem straight forward, there are some interesting nuances to the film.

The obvious areas that you can teach with this movie are Piracy during the age of Exploration, the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada. Those aspects of the movie are directly talked about and shown. However their are two subjects that are a bit more hidden. The first is the fact that this movie can be used to teach World War 2. In the movie the king of Spain states his dream to rule the world, however historians agree that this ambition was not present in King Phillip. But seeing as the film was made in 1940, it is well known that the makers of the movie were using King Phillip to represent Hitler and Spain to represent Germany. The movie has some very overt scenes that make it clear that the movie SeaHawk is talking about England's role as the only European power fighting against Hitler at the time.

Going off of the aspect of Spain being used to represent WW2 Germany, this film can be used to teach about propaganda and show students how movies and the media have been used to influence public opinion on world events. 

U.S. Government and the West Wing

Knowing how the U.S. Government runs is a very important aspect in being a well educated citizen. However learning about how the Government runs can be a very tedious and boring process.
Thankfully for teacher's everywhere there is a TV show that shows accurately how the Federal Government of the United states works. That show is NBC's "The West Wing"

Starting in 1998, Writer Aaron Sorkin and NBC created a show following the Presidency of Fictional Democrat Josiah "Jed" Bartlett. The show focused on the interactions of President Bartlett and his Senior Staff. But along the way the show clearly demonstrates how the U.S. Government works.

For example the episode "The Stackhouse Fillibuster"

Senator Stackhouse

In this episode the Senate is attempting to pass a monumental Family Wellness bill designed to help families get healthcare. However Senator Stackhouse holds up the passage of the bill in an attempt to get 47 million dollars of funding added to the bill to help combat autism across the United States(it is later revealed that his grandson has autism) The episode is mostly accurate in showing how a single senator used to be able to use unlimited debate to prevent the passage of a bill(the record by a single senator was Strom Thurmond's 24 hours and 18 minute filibuster of the 1957 Civil Rights bill) However the only flaw in the episode is that in reality even when answering a question during a filibuster, the filibustering senator may not sit down.

Congressman Matt Santos

With election season coming up the entire sixth and seventh seasons of the show are great for showing the inner workings of a campaign. The sixth season focuses on the Democrat Presidential primary race between Matt Santos and Bob Russell to see who will replace President Bartlet. The show depicts how candidates sometimes have to change their feelings on certain issues to gain support (i.e. ethanol as a fuel) and how campaigns need large amounts of money to effectively win. The show also has a brokered convention, in which neither candidate has achieved enough votes to secure the nomination.

Vice President Bob Russell

The seventh season focuses primarily on the race between the Matt Santos, the Democrats nominee for president and Arnold Vinick, the Republican Nominee for president, to see who will succeed president Bartlett. The show gives a behind the scenes look at the underhanded aspects of a presidential primary race, from the possibility of a love child, the possible politicizing of a nuclear plant meltdown, to the death of a vice presidential candidate.

Arnold Vinick, President Bartlett, Matt Santos

Teaching World Diplomacy Through Risk

Sometimes students have issues understanding why battles happened. For the most part they understand that battles are generally either in response to an attack or to gain more land. They don't always understand strategic battles designed to better position one side later on in the world. The easiest way to explain this is the game of Risk.

There is one slight issue and that is the fact that the game of Risk is a whole world game, thus in its normal format, it is only valid for teaching major world events such as the World Wars. However there are other formats that can be used for different battles, and if need be you could always create your own map.

Castle Risk(Europe+Russia and Turkish empire)

Napoleon Age Risk

By creating game maps that would allow students to participate in simulated battles or historical wars, some students will walk away with a much better understanding than usual. Using Risk is a method that plays directly into the theories of Howard Gardner. Playing a game of Risk to talk about world battles allows those that learn better when they can be a little more hands on and also it would be beneficial to those that learn better when they are allowed to interact with others. 

Renaissance Ninja Turtles

While Video games are a great way to connect to the kids outside of school, they don't always help students remember important figures. Luckily for the renaissance, there is something that all the kids know that they can use to remember Renaissance Artists.

While there isn't much actual connection between the Renaissance and the Ninja turtles, the names can help students make a memory connection in their heads. Students won't always remember those little facts they are given but they will remember it better if it is connected to a TV Show they watched.
Pisano and Giotto:

Nicola Pisano

These two men are the most important fore fathers to the Renaissance. They began the change in the style of art, While they didn't have much contact with the four major Renaissance Artists, they heavily influenced them along with the rest of the Renaissance. They would be similar to the character of Splinter in the Ninja Turtles Series.






Leonardo Da Vinci:

The two go somewhat hand in hand. Leonardo da Vinci is arguably the most well known Renaissance artist and somewhat of a leader, and The blue ninja turtle is the Leader of the group.

Michelangelo:

Michelangelo is most famous for painting the Sistine Chapel and carving the statue of David. You can use those two pieces of art to explain not only the changes in artistic style but also to explain the idea of Art Patronage during the time period.
The statue of David shows the lack of proportion that was evident prior to the Renaissance. David's hands were much larger than a man his size would have.
With the Sistine Chapel, the story of the Pope threatening Michelangelo if he did not finish the painting, greatly explains the issue with old art, that paintings were done because someone paid for them, not because the artist wanted to paint it. Also a good story to mention is the Cherub in the upper portion of one wall of the chapel that is giving the pope the Italian version of the middle finger.















Raphael:

 The Fresco artist Raphael is not as well known as the first two major artists, yet he is just as important. Michelangelo believed that the only reason he got the job painting the Sistine Chapel was that Raphael was trying to set him up for failure.
 Raphael's famous piece of art is arguably the School of Athens. Initially only available for viewing in the Pope's private library, the painting includes many of the great ancient Greek philosophers. Also included in the painting is Raphael himself, and it is believed that the images of Plato and Aristotle are also representative of Michelangelo and da Vinci.

Donatello:

 The least famous of the four names used for the Ninja Turtles and ironically the least known Ninja Turtle. Donatello was the premier sculptor of the Renaissance. One of his most interesting works is his statue of David, which is greatly different from the one sculpted by Michelangelo. Michelangelo's David, portrays him as large, strong, and confident, while Donatello's David portrays as small, somewhat weak looking, and very feminine.

David By Michelangelo

David by Donatello

 

Teaching the Crusades

The Crusades is a very interesting topic as it is an economic battle hidden under layers and layers of religious conflicts.
Their are numerous overlooked facts about the crusades that are very interesting to most students. The first being that in the First Crusade during the Siege of Jerusalem, the Crusader knights killed everyone regardless of religion. This is a very important fact to get across to students.

A good movie to show about the Crusades is the movie Kingdom of Heaven. While most movies are historically inaccurate, the movie does a good job to show the difference between the European perception of Islam and the actual thing. The movie also shows the Islamic forces in a very positive light, which in the Post 9/11 era is sometimes a rare thing.

Another angle for teaching students about history is the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the Knights Templar. There are numerous fiction novels such as

The Da Vinci Code,

The Last Templar,

and The Templar Legion

These all feature the Templar's and there actions during the Crusades as the basis for massive world wide cover ups. While this is not something that is required to be covered by the Standards, it is something that the students know and will likely be interested in, thus you can use it as a conduit of teaching the rest of the Crusades. 

Teaching the Renaissance through Video Games/PopCulture

The Renaissance is a very interesting and important area in the history of the world. It is very important that students learn about this era of history but also get the ideas behind it, but given that talking about a time period that is centered around revolution within the arts, some students aren't incredibly excited about it. This is where video games come in.
First in 2007 the Assassins Creed series has taken an interesting twist on World History. Framing historical events around a mythological battle between the Assassin's and the Templar's, the game takes major historical figures and subtlety teaches  students about who those people were.
For Example here is the games take on Leonardo da Vinci:
http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

The wiki mentions some of the more subtle things, such as da Vinci's chronic procrastination or the fact that he was left handed. The third game in the series also gives players a chance to take a look at and use da Vinci's war machines, such as his flying machine or his tank.
Tank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQBE90YjJck 


Flying Machine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORGVc1Sg7e8


By putting the Renaissance in these terms, students become more engaged in a subject that may normally be boring to them.