The White House Historical Association and two Pittsburgh companies have teamed up to create a web-based game that takes students into the Civil War-era and the Lincoln White House.
Mt. Lebanon-based
Argentine Productions and
Semiotic Technologies collaborated on the concept, creating a computerized world of talking historical figures and avatars. While it’s for children of all ages, it was designed with students from 8 to 12 year in mind, explains Peter Argentine.
“The educational objective is to experience the social history of the White House on the day the Emancipation Proclamation was signed,” says Argentine. “We hope to add a web 2.0 aspect where students can contribute to the experience.”
Lincoln’s son Tad is the game’s host. Players pick their characters, dress them and talk to people from history as they move through six different White House rooms, learning hidden facts.
Players ultimately finish in the Oval Office where the president signed the second part of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the day that slaves were officially declared freed. A beta-version was tested by a Mt. Lebanon School District class.
Argentine Productions worked with the White House Historical Association team to create key concepts for the game. A documentary, museum and educational video and media company, Argentine's past projects include PBS and Discovery specials,
Monongah Remembered, the story of the worst mining disaster in America, and the Carnegie Science Center IMAX film, “Pittsburgh’s Big Picture.”
Semiotic Technologies, a spinout of Carnegie Mellon’s ETC, designed the game. ST's other projects include a tool that teaches financial literacy for the startup Skill-Life.
President Lincoln’s White House will be used in classrooms across the country and is available free online. Click
here.
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Writer:
Deb SmitSource: Peter Argentine, Argentine Productions
Image courtesy Argentine Productions