Rolling the Dice to Learn in Social Studies

Abstract

Board games are enjoying increased popularity with thousands of new games introduced annually. The most popular mechanical element of board games is rolling dice and economic topics rank in the top three most common board game themes. The dice game Left, Center, Right employs dice and is easy to learn. This essay presents a variety of social topics illustrated while playing the game. The game is not intended to teach specific disciplinary concepts or topics, but a teacher can employ the game to introduce topics and to encourage discussion that contributes to schema formation needed for effective learning.

Keywords:

• Games
• social studies
• classroom
• discussion
• critical thinking
• classroom environment
• effective schools
• learning environments

Notes

1 Vatvani notes that these figures exclude expansions and pertain to new games only.

2 Reliable aggregate sales revenue data available to the public is difficult to find; however, in 2013, Hasbro reported a 20 percent increase in sales from board games. Kruzman (2017, July 31) refers to the inceased popularity of board games as a renaissance. Further, he cites Milton Griepp, President of ICv2, stating that hobby game sales increased by 21 percent in 2016. In addition, a spokesman for the retailer,Target, reports double digit growth in game sales.

3 In French, the translation of board games is jeu social emphasizing the social interaction rather than the the physical materials as in English.

4 Physics and Economics appear frequently on lists of the most difficult college courses, see Elizabeth Hoyt (2014), “The Hardest College Courses,” https://www.fastweb.com/student-life/articles/the-hardest-college-courses

5 The Force Concept Inventory exam was developed by Hestenes, Halloun, Wells and Swackhamer in 1985. The exam is administered to first semester students. The exam is intended to assess mastery of typical concepts taught in a first semester course. The author is aware of no such effort to assess learning in economics courses.

6 Expense and storage space can be expected to increase proportionally as additional units of the game are required to accommodate more students.

7 Reportedly Kurt Cobain included the reference in his suicide note; see https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neilyoung/mymyheyheyoutoftheblue.html. Regardless, the sentence illustrates an intertemporal trade-off that can be extended from the individual to the state or international level of analysis in the context of resource use or investment requiring deferred consumption.

8 After suffering a series of business failures, Henry George (1879) asks in his classic book “Progress and Poverty” how can there be so much misery and poverty in a country with such abundance.

9 The challenge is to identify all the costs and the benefits to make the calculation. It may be that the costs are incurred up front with the benefits realized later. In this case, failure to include future benefits may result in a suboptimal outcome.