World War II Becomes a Board Game at High School

l history teacher Joe Mattessich and his students have brought the concept of making learning fun to a new level, with the production of a World War II board game.

The students used books, class time, lectures and research conducted during an independent study of an important WWII individual to make up questions for the board game. The project took about three weeks to complete, according to Mattessich.

Players needed to answer a wide range of questions pertaining to WWII events to move their pieces along the game board, Mattessich said. And the information on individuals was turned into espionage questions.

“If a player landed on espionage, he or she had to answer a question called ‘who am I?’ The kids got several clues about a person, and had to guess who it is. And if the player didn’t know the answer, the student who made up the question could steal it.”

Other parts of the game included landing on Russian Control, which would send the player to Gulag, or landing on a land mine, when the player would go to the infirmary.

About 12 ninth and eleventh grade students put the game together.

“Generating this game not only took an independent effort, but also required teamwork to institute game rules, game course, objectives and the actual game board creation,” Mattessich said. “I wanted them to see that learning can still be pleasurable and entertaining on this level.

Mattessich thanked aides Barbara McSorley and Donna Matthews for their help with this project.