Chrono Scouts

Chrono Scouts is a series of recombinant narrative card games that teach history and historical thinking skills to middle school students. It is played by groups of 2-5 students who work cooperatively to assemble a narrative out of disparate events, and is designed to work in a classroom setting. There are two editions of the game, covering WWI and the American Revolution.

Chrono Scouts and its paired game, Fact Fuse, were created by the USC Game Innovation Lab. More information, and a print-and-play version of the game, can be found at history.gameinnovationlab.com. The WWI edition is available for purchase here, and the American Revolution is available here.

Chrono Scouts is packaged together with another card game, Fact Fuse, as part of a paired set of classroom games. Both games have been designed to reinforce curricular content at specific instructional intervention points. Chrono Scouts is designed to support lessons early in the study of a historical event and encourages exploration of key figures, events, and underlying relationships that form micro-narratives of the conflict. The WWI edition was funded by a gift from Microsoft Research, and the American Revolution edition was developed under a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities.