Another semester draws to a close. Although I missed posting last week, today will be a bonus final post for the semester. There may be a few more comments during the semester as I figure out how to upload videos that my phone thinks are too big, etc. (Patrick and Ernie had an epic FLex battle a few weeks back.)
In addition, I have a bit of research to get done this summer, so there may be some mention of that. One of my big projects is to prepare for my board games "WittSem" class next semester. This will be a first-year-college-students-only class that has the dual purpose of acting as an introduction to university. I will spend time helping to impart good study habits (do I have these?) and instill a love for games and math.
These WittSems must include a multi-disciplinary spin; in addition to the math, I will talk about cultural/historical aspects of games. To this end I can cover many geographic regions with different games, but I'm not sure what the more interesting points I should definitly cover are. Some ideas:
* Follow the evolution of Chess across Asia and Europe.
* Compare rule sets of Go, which are different by country/region.
* Perhaps the same is true of Mancala?
* Look at origins of Konane as well as taboos while playing.
This last one may have a recurring theme. The name of the class is: "How to play board games: Culture and Tactics" (or something along those lines) so I was intending to talk about what was expected socially by players during the game.
Any additional help would be most excellent! If you know something interesting about the culture of games (from anywhere!) I would love to know!
Red, Yellow, and Green Hats
4 weeks ago
