Red Land/Black Land: Teaching Ancient Egyptian History Through Game-Based Learning

FAIN: HD-50573-09

Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI 48824-3407)
Ethan C. Watrall (Project Director: October 2008 to April 2014)

The development of a modification of the game Civilization IV that would allow students to explore ancient Egypt.

This project will produce a robust Civilization IV mod (a modification to an existing game) allowing players to explore the society and history of Ancient Egypt. The project has three goals: 1) players will explore the process of social and historical change from the early Predynastic period to the end of the Third Intermediate Period (ca 4000 - 525 B.C.); 2)supplementary game content will help players explore the construction of historical knowledge-- how Egyptologists and archaeologists know what they do about ancient Egypt; 3) the mod will provide an accurate counterpoint to many mainstream commercial videogames that perpetuate pseudo-historical and pseudo-archaeological notions of ancient Egypt. This game-based learning approach will provide a far deeper, more experiential understanding of the subject than might be gained through more traditional means such as textbooks or lectures.