This document discusses how playing board games can help students develop 21st century skills. It provides examples from students who played various games and describes how the games helped them develop skills like critical thinking, real-world connections, collaboration, strategic thinking, leadership, and mental organization. The games discussed include Metro, China: The Middle Kingdom, Chang Cheng, Gang of Four, Power Grid, and In the Year of the Dragon. Students explained how the games required adapting strategies, making inferences about other players, and applying lessons to future situations.

1. Get on Board:
Using Games to Promote
21st Century Learning
Becky Palgi and Joshua Hostetter ✦ October 5, 2012
NCSLMA 2012 Annual Conference

2. Standard 1:
inquire,
think critically,
gain knowledge.

3. Learning and
playing games
can help students...

4. develop knowledge in a
curricular subject area.

5. make real-world
connections.

6. use prior knowledge
as a context
for new learning.

7. adapt strategies
to unique situations.

8. “Our group explored Metro and learned
how to play it by reading most of the rules
and learning as we go. We had to figure out
the point system by reading the rules, but
we figured out how to connect our track
pieces by playing the game. This process
would help us in life with recipes. We might
have to read the ingredients, but we would
know how to mix it together as we cook.”
– Tyler P. on Metro

9. “[The game] helped us learn the
geographical boundaries of Ancient China.
We also learned when the dynasties came to
power and ended. We learned leadership
skills and what it takes to run an army. We
already knew the dynasties of the game.”
– Tyler B. on China: The Middle Kingdom

10. “Our game allowed many different ways to
win. you could go on offense and take out
walls and reputation points while building
your pieces of the great wall, or you could
go on defense and build your great wall and
keep it safe while adding reputation
points.”
– Jonathan D. on Chang Cheng

11. Standard 2:
draw conclusions,
make informed decisions,
apply knowledge to new situations,
create new knowledge

12. Learning and
playing games
can help students...

13. construct new
understandings.

14. use various strategies
to draw conclusions.

15. apply strategic knowledge
to future situations.

16. collaborate with
others.

17. decode an opponent’s
strategy.

18. adapt strategies
to unique situations.

19. “We each agreed that the game made us think
deeper despite its easy appearance. We had to
keep changing our plans based on what the player
before us had done, and we kept getting
frustrated. The hardest part about the game was
learning how to play and trying to figure out who
won each end, but after we got the rules straight
it was a lot easier and we all had fun.”
– Arianna R. on Gang of Four

20. “For this game you had to figure out what your
opponent is trying to do and in the future, like if
you own a business, you can use the same
strategy to find out what the rival businesses are
trying to do to help their business or impair
yours.”
– Carolina K. on China: The Middle Kingdom

21. “When China was building the Great Wall of
China, many people tried to destroy the wall.
That's what we were doing, trying to take
down the wall [built by] other players. If we
didn't own that certain part of the wall, we
wanted it destroyed!”
– Erin D. on Chang Cheng

22. “My group decided that this game required
players to evaluate which events were coming up
in order to know what necessities to acquire. For
example, if a drought is coming up, you want to
get rice so that you can feed your people without
having to loose any. The game taught you how to
prepare for things in life.”
– Julia R. on In the Year of the Dragon

23. “Players had to share ideas to make well thought
out plans. Players also had to look back on
previous moves to see how your enemy worked
and thought. We had to share goals because say
we are all fighting to neutralize one enemy, but
if we are all trying to fight each other, we can
not effectively neutralize the player without
sharing the common goal.”
– Chris L. on China: The Middle Kingdom

24. “Our game, Power Grid, required players to
think ahead a lot, and guess or analyze where
the players could buy houses or power plants
and figure out how to stop them from winning
the game. Also, you had to keep up with a lot of
resources. Trust me, it is WAY easier to explain
how to think ahead in the course of playing this
game than DOING it!”
– McKenzie G. on Power Grid

25. “The game is all about strategy. You need to
know things about the action cards so you can
not only use them but keep other people from
using them by canceling theirs out.”
– Kaitlyn C. on Chang Cheng

26. “[You] had to decode strategies to be able to
change your battle plan in time to save your
armies, and through that you could learn to be
a good strategist and leader in the real world.
You also had to view the scene and see all the
pieces and realize the best way to attack and
conquer the land the most efficient and well-
planned way.”
– Chris L. on China: The Middle Kingdom

27. “In this game it often helped to try to memorize the
opponents previous moves to try to get an idea of
what their gaming strategy is. For example if
somebody attacks a lot then their strategy during the
end game will probably involve brute force, so in
order to counter them you would have a large
amount of soldiers in a province that they have to go
through in order to beat you. It also helped
memorizing the opponents army cards so you know
their special abilities.”
– Jacob N. on China: The Middle Kingdom

28. Standard 3:
share knowledge,
participate ethically
as members
of a democratic society.

29. Learning and
playing games
can help students...

30. collaborate in order
to increase understanding.

31. develop
leadership skills.

32. become motivated
to share
beyond the classroom.

33. assess how well
they are learning
to learn
more effectively.

34. “In the Year of the Dragon helped my leadership
skills because I was basically the unofficial
leader. I help everyone with the rules, told them
what was going to happen, and good ways to try
and win. I'm not a good leader and don't like
telling people how to play a game, but I think
this helped because none of us really knew what
to do, so I read the instructions.”
– Hannah K. on In the In the Year of the Dragon

35. “Metro definitely made you fail a couple of times, but
it also left room for revision in your strategy. Every
time you played you would think of other ways to get
from your station to central station in the longest way.
There are other variables in this situation, which one
of them is probability. You would learn all of the track
pieces and figure out your next move if any of them
came up. So you would always remember to try to find
a different place to put it next time.”
– Maria J. on Metro

36. Standard 4:
persue personal
and asthetic growth.

37. Learning and
playing games
can help students...

38. mentally organize
information for recall.

39. become motivated
to improve their skills.

40. “To mentally organize for this game you had to
look at the events to prepare for what was
going to happen. For example, by looking at the
events and seeing that a tribute was coming up,
you would determine what action cards to pick.
For an upcoming tribute, you would want to buy
a tribute so that you don't have to get rid of
any people.”
– Julia R. on In the Year of the Dragon