Silverheart as a Teaching Method at Skrim Lower Secondary School

In February I held a workshop on roleplaying games for ten lower secondary school teachers. Some of them came from Skrim lower secondary school, and on April 29 they put Silverheart to use as part of their teaching. In total, 70 students took part to learn more about Kongsberg at the end of the 1700s. This is an article about how it went!

The text is based on an experience report written by Martin Persson, a 9th grade teacher. He attended the workshop and is one of the teachers behind the program.

Preparations

To involve as many students as possible, 3-4 students in each class were selected as game masters. Martin writes that there was great demand to take part, so they had to make a selection. These students received a full school day of training ahead of April 29, going through the rules, a bit about historical Kongsberg at the end of the 1700s, and how to run a game based on the adventure «Dypets kall» (The Call of the Deep).

Arrangements were also made for the students who would likely struggle with such a day, or who had already expressed a wish to «opt out». They were allowed to cook in the kitchen, lapskaus stew and flatbread from scratch, which was relevant to Kongsberg in 1796. This was served to the whole grade in the last period as a closing of the day.

Execution

The day began with a short joint introduction for all three classes. Martin talked about the goal of the game, the historical background, a bit about the rules, and how the day was structured. This took about 10-15 minutes.

The classes then returned to their own classrooms where a teacher guided them through the process of creating their own characters. They spent the rest of the first period making their own creative product as preparation for the play session. Some made three-dimensional playing pieces for their character or some equipment they had received, others drew a portrait of themselves.

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In the second and third periods, the students played in groups of 4-6 participants plus a game master. There was also one teacher in each of the three classrooms who could guide the students as needed. In addition, Martin and his colleague Kenneth were «experts» who moved between the classrooms.

How long the students managed to keep the game going varied a bit, but everyone played for at least an hour and a half, and a couple of groups could probably have continued past two. Martin writes that after the game, the students felt they had gotten a glimpse of what it was like to live under harsh conditions in Kongsberg at that time. At the same time, the historical learning outcome varied somewhat between the groups. Even though everyone started from «Dypets kall», there were also quite a few creative angles.

In the fourth and final period, the students were asked to write an interview with the character they had played, or alternatively write a text continuing the story after the game. Here is an example of an interview published in the local newspaper anno 1796.

Closing

Martin writes that his class really enjoyed playing, and that it had been a very fun day. I also received an email from a parent afterwards, saying that their daughter had said: «today we had a really good time at school. We played a Kongsberg game about the old days.»

Based on this day, the teachers found that roleplaying as a teaching method for learning history worked very well in 2 out of 3 classes. Why it did not work as well in the third class, apart from one group, they are unsure about. They suspect it may have something to do with the group composition, the game masters, or that roleplaying simply wasn't for several students in that class.

Summary

All in all, this was a great success, with a fine program created by Martin, Kenneth, and the rest of the team. In total, about 70 students were involved, split between 10 game masters, 50 players, and 10 in the school kitchen.

A big thank you to Skrim lower secondary school for making this a school day far beyond the ordinary, and a big thank you to Kongsberg 400 and Kongsberg Municipality for making it possible.

-KO