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       Trekking the Santa Fe Trail

      Introduction | Task | Game Framework | SFT Overview  | Advice | Evaluation | Conclusion

       

      INTRODUCTION

       In celebration of the 175th Anniversary of the Santa Fe Trail,  the Museum of the West is opening  a new exhibit entitled El Camino de Santa Fe. Interactive displays with historical documents, vintage photos, artifacts, video & audio clips will be featured. But for the first time, an edutainment game based on the Santa Fe Trail will be a part of the exhibit.  The game should be a fun learning experience for all ages, young, old and in between. By traveling the trail once again, history will come ìaliveî and be more meaningful for the participants. The search is on for a company to accept the challenge of designing a Santa Fe Trail game. So let's load up that schooner and hit the trail!

      The Task

      Congratulations! Your company has been chosen to develop the Museum's Santa Fe Trail game.  You are now part of the design team. This is an important first step for your company into the edutainment market. If the SFT game is successful, perhaps more opportunities will arise. There will be five teams working to put this project together-
       
      1. Cartographers
      2. Historians
      3. Immigrants
      4. Native Americans
      5. Wagon Masters

       
      Each team will use information from a variety of resources, both on and off-line, to do their research. It's important to be as historically accurate as possible.  Please remember to take notes as you go documenting your information sources. You can do that by writing them down or word processing them. Your notes are important because they are part of both the individual and group evaluation process. The data you collect will be integrated into the game both on the board itself and the game cards. Look below!

      Game Framework

      The game board will be based on the trail itself. The goal is to traverse the trail and arrive in Santa Fe.  How the game pieces move will be decided by the group. Do you want to roll dice, use a spinner with numbers or integrate numbers into the cards?
      Suggestion: think of the game monopoly for a template.
      The game pieces or players will be based on historical figures which are color coded with the cards. The information on the cards is based on your research.  The events, good, bad or indifferent that befall the characters will be dictated by the luck of the draw and what is written on the cards.
      Check out each team's page and get more specifics.

       
       

      Santa Fe Trail Overview

       

      These are resources all teams need to review to get a basic  background on the Santa Fe Trail.
       

      • Santa Fe Trail
      • Trail Net
         
         
         

      Here is a History Quiz to excite your investigative mind! Don't worry the answers are provided. Just guess what the answers are and see how close you are to the truth. Caution you will have to page back from this link to return to this adventure.  Try the quiz. You'll learn a lot!

      Advice:

      • You might want to divide up the trail into sections and/or  divide up the research resources. That way each member of the group has their part and contributes to the project.
      • Also each group will want to check with the other groups to see how your part is fitting into the whole scheme of things.
      • If you find information that you think will be useful for the other groups, please share.
      • Remember there are experts you can email with your questions.  You can start with:

              Mike Olsen at the Santa Fe Trail Net .
                Go to the bottom of the page to get an e@mail box.
                The Heritage Center might be another good place to get answers to your questions.

      Evaluation

      Participants will be graded individually and as a group.  Individual assessment will be done both by yourself and your teammates. It will be based on:
       
      • your contributions
      • what you learned
      • your effort
      • your level of cooperation

      Each team will give themselves a group grade based on these same criteria. You will be expected to do a 1/2 to 1 page group write-up documenting what you did well and how you would do things differently and/or improve your group contribution.
      The class will assess the final project according to the following guidelines.
       

      • Overall project presentation- Neatness, completeness, clarity
      • Historical information-Accurate, insightful, of good quality
      • Learning experience- fun, interesting, worthwhile
      • What worked? What needs help? What else?

      Conclusion

      By developing this game you and your team members have learned about the trail, itsí pioneers and the Native Americans through a variety of historic documents and resources just like real researchers. Trekking the SFT through the words of the pioneers and from the perspective of the Native Americans who were impacted has equipped you with a more realistic understanding of what that journey meant from both a personal and historical perspective. It also has enabled the class to share the learning with each other and everyone who plays Trekking the Santa Fe Trail.

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      Educ: 528, NMSU. Last updated April 26, 1998.