Of Water Balloons and History: Using Wargames as Active Learning Tools to Teach Historical Process

The job of the historian is to “impose order on the chaos.” Historians must sift through a host of conflicting sources about their subject written by humans with biases and personal agendas. While reading about the historical process and visiting with archivists is valuable, these are nevertheless passive forms of learning, and their lessons may not adhere. With this assignment, students actively create and participate in an historical event—a “wargame” using water balloons as the weapons—and then generate primary sources about that event which they later use to write an analytical research paper. Once the wargame has been fought, students produce sources about the event by writing letters or reports about their personal experience. The instructor then combines these letters with neutral observer reports and some photographs into an “archive,” which the students use to write their paper.

The wargame makes the historical process transparent for students, as they can see every step along the way of how historians practice their craft: they experience the chaotic event itself; they participate in the creation of the primary sources about the event; and they have to evaluate the often conflicting sources in order to offer their interpretation as to why one team won or lost the battle. In other words, they have to “impose order on the chaos” of sources about their historical event. This assignment has been used by both presenters at different universities in military history, environmental history, and historical methods courses to great success. Students consistently evaluate it as one of the most effective and stimulating research papers they have written in college. The presenters will show how to help students understand the complexities and contested nature of the historical process in an interactive and exciting way.