Instructors are embracing the Learn To Play exhibit at the Euphrat Museum by incorporating it into their curriculum.

Humanities instructor Salamander Breiter, and political science instructor Robert Stockwell have integrated the exhibit into their lesson plans.

“The Learn To Play exhibit offers my students an excellent opportunity to explore a number of concrete themes and concepts from my classes in experiential and enjoyable context,” Breiter said.

“The exhibit will play a different role in each of these courses,” Breiter said. “In my Creative Minds course, I am specifically interested in exploring the way in which video games potentially represent a tool, almost like a type of language, for addressing personal and political dilemmas. In my popular culture class, we focus on the potential impacts, both positive and negative, of video games on children’s sense of place and power in contemporary culture.”

Breiter took his classes to the Learn To Play exhibit last quarter and plans on taking his classes again.

Stockwell plans on taking his International Relations class next quarter with an opportunity to work for the Euphrat to earn community service hours this quarter.

“In my American Politics course, I have this community service learning component. Students are required to do 12 hours of community service,” said Stockwell.

Working with the Euphrat, students are able to learn about a museum’s organizational functions within a community.

“One of the essential aspects of our course is about American politics, the processes where by decisions are made, the effects of the decisions … then how it is that individuals of that political system can effectively engage that system,” Stockwell said.

The exhibit displays fundamental games examining culture, society and history. Everyday decisions, like running a red light in the middle of the night when no one is visible, are relevant examples in which students are forced to make a decision regarding the legality of their actions.

“Game theory in political science is a fundamental way of modeling decision making,” Stockwell said. “The most famous example is something called prisoner’s dilemma.”

The prisoner’s dilemma demonstrates a problem where two individual’s best interest is to cooperate but choose not to do so. A typical scenario could involve two thieves who commit a crime. The police apprehend them and bring both back to the station for questioning. They separate and become isolated. The dilemma then becomes centered around one accusing the other for a reduced charge. However, if they both out each other, neither wins. 

It is in both thieves’ interest not to speak out, but trust wears thin without communication. This problem model can be studied to find the medium outcome. Video games can explore this theory by easily collecting data from gamers through repetitive gaming.

Stockwell wants to make his students aware about the ongoing dialog between politics and art. He uses the Euphrat as a tool to help his students understand the dynamic relationship between the two.

Ultimately, his students have to have a hunger for knowledge for learning to occur.

“The big thing about learning is not being spoon fed. You got to read, you got to think,” Jan Rindfleisch, Executive Director of the Euphrat Museum, said.