Honoring Black History Month...Negro Baseball Leagues

The Starting Line-up: Early History of the Negro Leagues and Blacks in Baseball

Introduction

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is expanding their souvenir and gift shop. They are desiring a fun and educational game about negro leagues baseball that could be sold in their shop. Since the game will be targeted to students, they believe that the best game designers may actually be students themselves. The team whose game is selected will receive a $1000 award and will be recognized at a ceremony commemorating Negro League baseball. Will your game be selected?

The Task

Your team will be designing a game that is both fun and educational. You will need to have some background information about the history surrounding the Negro Leagues, key people, and unique information about the Negro Leagues. To get the needed background information you will have some preliminary tasks that will help you accomplish this. Everyone in your group will be part of your research team.

The Process

Step One: Gathering Background Information

You will be involved in a specific area of research in a group of 2-3 people. You and your group members will become experts in this area and share your knowledge with the others in the class.

Topic: Players and Others Involved in the History of Black Baseball

Assignment: Gather research on the Negro Leagues and players using the Bag the Web links below.  You will be adding to a database of players, so make sure you bookmark or create a Bag the Web for your players.


While researching, please add the players to the Negro Baseball League database by clicking below:
Negro League database of players.
You can also add players by using the form below!
Please check that the player is not already added before you begin.
You can see who has been added below:







To access the database, please log-in using the username and password for your blog.  After you log-in, please click on DOCUMENTS at the top and you will see the link to the database.



Using Photoshop Elements, your group will create 16-20 different “baseball cards” which each feature an important person in the history of blacks in baseball. Each card should be well designed with the person’s name, a picture of them, and the important facts/statistics and contributions that the person made. You will need to open Photoshop Elements first then go to FILE and OPEN to load the template.

Click here to download the baseball card template: http://www.op97.org/lincoln/reading/baseball/baseball_card_template.psd

Samples of baseball cards.

The Process

Step Two: Creating A Game

Your group of 2-3 people will be responsible for creating a unique game in which players of the game get a real knowledge of the of the Negro Leagues and the history of Blacks in baseball. Your team should brainstorm ideas and come up with an idea for a game and a name for your game. The group should make a list of supplies needed and assign who will be responsible for gathering supplies not available in the classroom. Once your group has an idea, these are the roles needed and the job descriptions. Although each person has a task, the group is responsible for giving feedback to each other and agreeing on the final product of each part of the game.

Technical Writer: Using Word, this person will write the rules of the game. The rules sheet should begin with a clearly stated objective of the game. There should be a statement for the number of players that can play. The rules section will be clearly written and easy to follow. The third section should be a clear explanation of what is needed to win the game. The others in your group should proofread the instructions before you create the final copy.

Graphic Designer: Create a game board that is neat, interesting (includes appropriate graphics) and logical. Use a good color scheme, appropriate proportion and a nice design. The game board should be educational and reflect the topic of the Negro Leagues and Blacks in baseball. It should include the name of the game on the board. The graphic designer may also create an appealing package for the game. A drawing or plan should be made first and OK’d with the group before beginning on the actual board and packaging.

Question and Answer writers: These people will create questions and answers and prepare them in whatever format the game requires. If the game questions have categories, the question writers will appropriately categorize them. Questions should have various levels of difficulty requiring various levels of thinking skills. Questions and answers should be in a typed format. Questions and answers should be tested on the others in your group before they are created in the final format.

How you will be EVALUATED- click here for the grading rubric.

Conclusion: By completing this webquest you will have learned about the contributions of Blacks to the great game of baseball. Visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to extend your learning about this historical era and the great contributors of this time in baseball. And if you get the chance, shake hands with the great Buck O’Neil.

Adapted from http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/~mbarthol/index_files/webquest%20negro%20leagues.htm