Honors Study Topic Combined with Board Game Teaches History Class a Lesson
The Phi Theta Kappa chapter at Mt. San Jacinto College in California recently
turned the popular board game, Monopoly, into a history lesson with an honors
program twist.
The Honors
Study Topic, Gold, Gods, and Glory: The Global Dynamics of
Power, is the central focus of the Honors Program, offering chapters
the opportunity to examine a timely, interdisciplinary subject that is
of vital importance to the human experience. The 2006-08 Honors Study Topic
focuses on the human drive for power on the levels of money and wealth (gold),
religious and spiritual strength (gods), and personal motivators (glory).
Chapter
president Erica Draghi said the idea of using the game in correlation with
the current topic came from suggestions members read about in the Honors
Study Topic Program
Guide.
In keeping with the original concept of the
game, the content of the new version focused on buying and selling of property.
However, instead of using such familiar streets as Boardwalk and Park Place
as purchase properties, the spaces were changed to reflect businesses
that were owned by the four major figures of the industrialization era:
J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, J.D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Students formed six teams with a goal to obtain business monopolies
and decide if they wanted to donate to charity. The teams donating to charity
were labeled "industrial statesmen" while those who chose not to donate
were "robber baron," a subject the students studied with their teacher.
In the end, the most charitable businessman won the game with
the students realizing that donating to charitable causes resulted in
social, political and financial benefits as well as obstacles.
Draghi
says the chapter has been proactive in implementing the Honors Study Topic
throughout the community. The chapter has hosted film festivals and faculty
debates relating to the current topic.
"This has been a memorable
year for our chapter," said Draghi. "We are having a blast exploring the
'Global Dynamics of Power'."
Learn more about the
Honors Study Topic, Gold, Gods, and Glory: The Global Dynamics
of Power online.
