Mission US

September 2, 2016

Up from the Dust, the fifth in the Mission US series of online history games produced in collaboration with New York public television station WNET/Thirteen and game producer Electric Funstuff, was released on September 2nd. The role-playing game provides young people with an experiential understanding of the enormous hardships Americans faced during the late 1920s and early 1930s as they struggled against the joint catastrophes of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The game is divided into five parts, with a prologue offering background on the settlement of the Texas panhandle and the expansion of wheat farming, and an epilogue extending the story of the main characters through World War Two.

Students playing the game assume the roles of Frank and Ginny Dunn, twins growing up on their family wheat farm near Dalhart, Texas. The game begins in summer 1929 and follows family members as they confront falling wheat prices, drought, and depression. In 1932, Frank encounters nationwide desperation, political organizing, and local protests when he decides to “ride the rails” in search of work and adventure. In the meantime, Ginny tries to help her family and neighbors survive hard times, but after the massive 1935 Black Sunday dust storm she decides to join migrants heading for California. As both Frank and Ginny experience the benefits and limitations of New Deal government programs, students will understand how “ordinary people” survived this critical period in U.S. history.

Deeply researched and informed by the most recent scholarship, Up from the Dust was developed for middle- and high-school students and was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Mission US series now has more than one million registered users nationwide and has garnered major awards and citations—this year alone games received the Parents’ Choice Gold Award for the Best Learning Game, were a Finalist for the Games for Change Awards, and a nominee for the Daytime Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Interactive Media category. And this summer NEH awarded the series a Digital Humanities Implementation Grant to “revitalize” early Mission US games to enhance access and include features developed later in the series.

Over the summer we received news of funding that will allow ASHP to build two additional “missions” in the award-winning Mission US series of online adventure-style games in which players take on the role of young people during critical moments in U.S. history. In June, the National Park Service awarded our project partner public television station WNET-Thirteen a grant to create “Prisoner in My Homeland,” which will place students in the role of a Japanese American teen-aged boy who must make choices as he and his family are forced to leave their home on Bainbridge Island, Washington, for one of the “temporary detention centers” and then to one of ten WRA incarceration sites during World War II. In July, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced funding for “No Turning Back,” a mission that will take place in Mississippi during the summer of 1964 and explore the fight for voting rights undertaken by young people there.

February 11, 2015 marked the launch of the fourth Mission US digital role-playing game. This series of free online games is created to engage middle and high school students in the exploration and understanding of U.S. history. “City of Immigrants” supports the study of immigration, the labor movement, and cultural identity in the American History curriculum. Players take on the role of Lena Brodsky, a Russian Jewish teen who has immigrated to New York City in 1907. As Lena makes the Lower East Side her home, she struggles to help support her family and finds herself in the middle of the growing labor movement.

As young people play “City of Immigrants,” they gain important insights into the struggle for safe working conditions, fair wages, and the right to bargain collectively. At the same time, they experience the challenges of cultural differences, assimilation, and prejudice. Players will interact with a variety of characters, from factory supervisors to family and religious leaders, who all had roles in creating America’s labor movement and strong communities in New York. As they assume the role of Lena, players must decide: Does she dare speak up and stand up for workers’ rights? Can she continue to support her family? Players will make choices and experience the consequences of those choices – the same choices immigrants grappled with as they made their way in the United States.

The first annual CUNY Games Festival, January 17-18, 2014, was a terrific success. One of the first academic conferences to explore game-based learning (GBL) in higher education, the two-day event attracted almost 200 registrants. Participants included faculty and students from 10 CUNY schools and dozens of universities and colleges across the country, along with game developers and other representatives from non-profit and for-profit technology sectors.

The first day of the conference, held at the CUNY Graduate Center, featured a full slate of presentations, “shorts,” posters, a game demo arcade, and a plenary session with John Black (Teachers College, Columbia University), Joey Lee (Teachers College, Columbia University), Anastasia Salter (University of Baltimore), and Eric Zimmerman (New York University). ASHP/CML’s Leah Potter presented “Truth is Where You Make It: Designing Historical Games” with co-presenter Carlos Hernandez (Borough of Manhattan Community College). Her presentation drew on experiences with the ongoing Channel 13 Mission US series for which ASHP/CML is the lead content developer. The second conference day, held at Borough of Manhattan Community College, was a game day during which participants playtested both commercial and educational tabletop/board games with guidance from game designers.

Game-based learning (GBL) refers to instructional practices that incorporate games with defined learning outcomes, or that adopt game learning principles over conventional pedagogies. Research shows the potential of GBL to foster student engagement and problem-solving, and to improve student performance across disciplines. While GBL is gradually gaining a foothold in colleges and universities, and attracting the attention of administrators, most of the public discourse and media spotlight on GBL is directed at the k-12 level, and much less so at higher education. The CUNY Games Festival fills this gap by focusing attention on the possibilities and challenges of integrating GBL in college classrooms, as well as the emerging field of game studies.

ASHP/CML was the primary sponsor of the event, which also received generous support from the CUNY Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and CUNY Digital Humanities Initiative. The New Media Lab, Center for the Humanities, and Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Certificate Program were also co-sponsors.

To learn more about the CUNY Games Festival, visit the conference website, or search Twitter for the hashtag #cgf2014.

Launching soon! Mission US: A Cheyenne Odyssey will introduce middle school students across the country to Little Fox and his Northern Cheyenne band. The third installment of the Mission US series of adventure games begins in 1867 in what is now Montana. As the fictional Little Fox, players will decide how best to survive changing life on the Plains and respond to encroachment from white soldiers and settlers. Visit Mission US on October 16, 2013 to start playing—and learning.

ASHP/CML is the content developer of Mission US, which is produced by public television station WNET/Thirteen in partnership with game developer Electric Funstuff, and supported by major funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Since launching last year, Mission US: Flight to Freedom continues to win accolades from the education, media, and gaming worlds. Flight to Freedom, the second of the Mission US series of adventure games on which ASHP/CML has collaborated with public television station WNET/Thirteen and other partners, features the journey of Lucy King, a (fictional) 14-year-old girl enslaved on a Kentucky Plantation. The game and curriculum immerse players in the history of slave communities and resistance, and the wider anti-slavery struggles that led up to the Civil War. Flight to Freedom has been praised for it’s “intelligent” and “thought-provoking” approach to history. Recent awards and acknowledgements include:

• 2012 History Makers Awards: Nominee – Best Interactive Production
• 2012 International Serious Play Awards: Gold Medal – Education Category
• 2012 National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) Award: Winner for Classroom Content in the Instructional Media category
• 2012 Jayisgames Annual Awards: Nominee – Point-and-Click Adventure

HERB: Social History for Every Classroom won a 2012 “Best of the Web” award from the Center for Digital Education. Named after our co-founder, the late distinguished historian Herbert Gutman, HERB is a free website that pulls together ASHP/CML’s most effective teaching activities, primary documents, and special collections into an accessible site for teachers and students. The award recognizes the site’s contribution to the benefit and quality of online education for students, teachers, and the community.

Our most recent interactive game for middle school students produced in collaboration with New York public television station Thirteen/WNET, Mission US 2: Flight to Freedom won a 2012 International Serious Play Gold Medal Award in the education division. Flight to Freedom, which tells the story of an enslaved teenager in the 1850s as she escapes north and confronts challenges presented by the Fugitive Slave Act, also has been receiving rave reviews from the press (such as this article in USA Today) as well as from teachers, and students.

Flight to Freedom is the second installment of Mission US, an interactive project that immerses players in U.S. history through free, role-playing games and for which ASHP/CML is the lead content developer. Mission US is produced by New York public television station WNET/THIRTEEN, developed by Electric Funstuff, and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In Flight to Freedom players take on the fictional role of Lucy King, a 14-year old enslaved girl on a Kentucky plantation in 1848. After escaping to Ohio, Lucy discovers that life in the North is fraught with difficulties and dangers that dramatically increase after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. The choices that players make throughout the game determine Lucy’s ultimate fate—for instance, Lucy can be re-enslaved “down river” to work on a cotton plantation or become a conductor for the Underground Railroad who helps other freedom seekers escape to Canada.

As students play Flight to Freedom, they build knowledge of the history of slavery and the abolitionist movement. Their understanding and critical perception of the historical context can deepen through the accompanying curriculum of activities and by examining a robust collection of primary sources such as maps, posters, runaway ads, slave narratives. Students also interact with the game’s embedded “Smartwords” to build vocabulary and historical literacy skills. The game is designed to work in classroom settings, with each part playable in 20 to 30 minutes, as well as for students to play on their own.

In 2011, the Education Development Center (EDC) completed a major research study examining the use of Mission US by 1,118 seventh and eighth grade students in 50 schools across the country. The study found measurable gains in students’ historical knowledge and skills, and yielded positive feedback from teachers. A summary of the study’s key findings is available here.

Since launching in late January 2012, Flight to Freedom has attracted more than 12,000 players and earned strongly positive reviews in USA Today, Common Sense Media, and Kotaku.

ASHP/CML has begun introducing Flight to Freedom to local teachers in our Teaching American History seminars. The game is designed primarily for students in grades 5-8, but we encourage students of all ages to play the game (and share your thoughts with us).