Classics: Ancient History: Gaming Wkshp

Topics examining themes in Ancient history. Representative topics: The Peloponesian War; Alexander the Great. May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years.

Open to Degree and PACE students; Class will meet in Jeanne Mance Common Room

Course Description: This 3-credit class is a reading, discussion, and simulation-gaming group based on a single, well defined 'event', the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE). It combines the traditional approach of studying ancient political and social history through primary texts (here Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch), with sophisticated board game simulations of the period. Games permit unique insights into complex systems: essential factors are identified and abstracted, and then 'put into play' in an infinitely variable, interactive environment. Social and historical processes can be modeled very effectively, allowing students to reach a more intimate understanding of historical events, progressing from 'what' and 'when', to 'why' and 'what if'. Up to the first third of each class will be spent in discussion. The remainder will be spent playing games.

These games can be great for generating discussion and insights about the associated reading and the historical events being modelled! They lose a lot of educational value if you don’t do the associated reading. So your grade in this class is determined by daily reading quizzes (see below). Your overall quiz average is then capped by the percentage of your attendance (see below), on the grounds that participating in the games is an equally vital part of the learning. The resulting grade can be raised a bit, but not lowered, by good participation—enthusiasm, focus, joining in discussion, not leaving early, etc.

For each day’s reading—which includes the footnotes!—make one multiple choice question relating to that day’s reading. Your question should not be too abstruse: focus on some large issue that a careful reader will appreciate, or startlingly memorable detail that you’d have to be asleep to miss. Write it clearly on one side of a standard index card (available at the bookstore) so that other students can read it when projected in front of class. On the other side, write your name and the date in the upper left, and the answer in the middle. Grade Cap I—Quiz Questions: Pay-to-play quiz system. Your overall quiz grade is capped by how many reading questions you turn in. That is, if you only turn in cards for 80% of the days, your reading grade will be no higher than 80, regardless of actual quiz grades. Grade Cap II—Attendance: Your maximum possible grade in the course overall is also capped by the percentage of days you attended class, with each unexcused absence ‘costing’ an equal fraction. For example, two misses mean a maximum GPA of 95% regardless of other virtues). The reason for this tough policy is that we are trying to build a community here, and we need you! In practice this policy is more psychological than practical since poor attendance inevitably leads to low performance anyway. Of course you can be excused for legitimate illness or other emergencies.