Honors Projects

Abstract

Throughout time, games have been used to convey how society functions. They hint at societal structure, behavioral patterns, and roles of community members. Specifically, board games are excellent ways to teach players about attention to detail and how to synthesize information.

This unique and functional honors project finds its strength as a detail-oriented game that stresses the importance of critical thinking and deduction as it further rewards those skills through play and friendly competition. It combines art history, education, and graphic design disciplines to result in a creative output alongside a research paper. Its final product is a playable game utilizing the Clue framework re-centered around the Roman style house. The cards, characters, and game board are informed by primary research conducted on study abroad to Italy in 2024 and secondary research from online and physical sources drawn from both contemporary retrospective and ancient primary sources.

The goal is for this game to be utilized in a classroom setting to meet both curriculum learning goals and increase student engagement with its content. It challenges the contemporary overreliance on digital studying tools with a physical game that not only helps with student retention of course materials but also provides a space for interpersonal skill growth through conflict resolution, teamwork, and critical thinking. It aligns itself with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to embrace and engage students through learning and play beyond just lectures and notes. The target audience for its implementation is a 7th grade classroom during their ancient civilization curriculum.

Department

School of Art

Major

Art – BFA in Graphic Design

Second Major

Marketing

First Advisor

Dr. Andrea Middleton

First Advisor Department

School of Art

Second Advisor

Dr. Mark Seals

Second Advisor Department

School of Teaching and Learning

Publication Date

Spring 5-7-2026

Download

Share

COinS