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HU students learn playing board games can have meaning

Huntington University students (from left) Nick Berry, a freshman from Fort Wayne; Nick Beery, a freshman from Fort Wayne; and Stormie Thorn, a freshman from Wayne, OH, set up the pieces of the board game Settlers of Catan during class time Wednesday, Jan. 14. The game is part of the curriculum of the “Learning to Think Strategically” class taught by psychology professor Tanner Babb.
Huntington University students (from left) Nick Berry, a freshman from Fort Wayne; Nick Beery, a freshman from Fort Wayne; and Stormie Thorn, a freshman from Wayne, OH, set up the pieces of the board game Settlers of Catan during class time Wednesday, Jan. 14. The game is part of the curriculum of the “Learning to Think Strategically” class taught by psychology professor Tanner Babb. Photo by Rebecca Sandlin.

Originally published Jan. 19, 2015.

In a unique class in session during Huntington University’s “J-term,” some students are learning how playing board games translates to real life lessons they can use throughout their lives and careers.

Yes, board games. The class, called “Learning to Think Strategically,” uses the games to develop students’ strategic thinking skills in academic, business, politics and everyday life.

Dr. Tanner Babb, chair of HU’s Psychology Department, teaches the class. He says students often leave the classroom mentally drained after playing an intense game session that digs down and brings the dynamics of emotions and strategy to the surface.

“Games have been used for thousands of years to teach different thinking skills. Historically, board games have been used to teach generals how to use strategy in war,” Babb explains. “I grew up playing board games, high strategy board games. I’ve always seen board games at a deeper level.”

The students are learning and playing four games during class time: Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan and 7 Wonders.
Babb will sometimes change the rules to the game, giving students different objectives that may bring new conflicts or challenges as they play the games with other students.

“If you change your goal, you change your experience in the game,” he tells students as he passes out new instructions to Settlers of Catan, a popular game played on the HU campus.

The games teach players skills such as understanding their own personality, changing objectives, delayed gratification, having a plan in place and anticipating an opponent, Babb says.

“Part of the goal of that is to try to help them understand that when you’re playing a board game, or just doing anything in life, sometimes just winning or coming out on top or being first doesn’t meet all of your relational needs, it doesn’t meet all of your personal needs,” he adds. “When you learn to look for other goals in life, or in what you’re doing, you can increase your happiness quite a bit.”

Students are also required to keep a journal of their experiences and what they’ve learned as a result of playing the games, as well as a final paper on strategic thinking and their college major or career path.

“I’ve learned that emotions can sometimes get in the way of things that you wouldn’t expect them to get in the way of,” says Nick Beery, a freshman chemistry major from Fort Wayne. “And you should always have a plan.”

Stormie Thorn, a freshman history, biblical studies and ministry major from Wayne, OH, says playing Pandemic, a cooperative game in which players work together to win as a team, helped her understand working in groups.

“A lot of the times what’s good for the group isn’t what one individual person wants to do,” she says. “I think learning to be persuasive and explain why those things are best for them when they’re best for the group will be useful in future life.”

Players must also interact with each other, which helps them develop cooperation — or develop strategies to control the other end of the spectrum.

“With board games, especially games like Settlers of Catan, you can purposely do stuff to frustrate somebody else’s game,” Babb says. “One of the goals I gave people today was, ‘Your goal is just to frustrate the game with other people as much as possible.’ So one person is trying to be nice in the game; one person is working against everybody, and it directly affects the relationships people have after the game, how they feel about each other.”

Babb says playing video games does not reap the same benefits as board games, despite the high-tech aspects of playing electronic games.

“The difference I see between video games and board games is the face-to-face interaction. With video games you’re all shoulder-to-shoulder, looking at a screen,” he explains. “There are certain concepts like dealing with emotions.

“If you’ve ever watched someone play a video game, it can get very emotional because you’re putting yourself into the game, your goals get frustrated and people will not typically deal well with emotions as they would with face-to-face interaction.”

Actor Wil Wheaton has posted several videos in a series on YouTube that explain how to play various board games, including the ones used in the Strategic Thinking Class.

To see the videos, go to www.youtube.com and type in “tabletop,” “Wil Wheaton” and the name of the game into the search box.