Tony Crider and student lead workshop at Elizabeth City State University

Tony Crider and Declan Cleary ’15 with participants at the 2015 Reacting to the Past Campus Workshop at Elizabeth City State University[/caption]The workshop, sponsored by the University of North Carolina General Administration, introduced the “Reacting the Past” pedagogy to instructors interested in adopting it. In these games, students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; instructors advise and guide students and grade their oral and written work. Reacting seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills.

In their opening talk, Crider and Cleary discussed usage of the “Reacting to the Past” series at Elon University, including games about democracy in Athens, ancient China, the Constitutional Convention, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution.

During the conference, Clearly and Crider guided faculty and students through a one-day version of “The Trial of Galileo” game in which participants play the roles of 17th-century cardinals and professors debating the accuracy and heretical nature of Galileo’s findings.

At the conclusion of the workshop, Crider described assessment of “Reacting to the Past,” the editorial process for game publication, and the online resources available to members of the Reacting Consortium.

More information about the workshop is available at: 

http://www.nchistorians.org/reacting-to-the-past-workshop-at-ecsu-saturday-7-march/