News/Reviews
Board With School Work
By
David A. Maurer
The Daily Progress
Thursday,
April 1, 1999
Many
teachers know that students often learn best when they're
having fun.
The trick is coming up with a
way to accomplish this feat.
Bob Taylor was
confronted with this problem shortly after starting
his teaching career in 1969 at Middletown High School
in Middletown, Del. He had just finished a two-year
stint in the Army and was raring to go.
"I
left the University of Virginia with a degree in history
in 1967 and I thought I was a teacher," said Taylor,
who lives in Albemarle County with his wife, Lorraine.
"Little did I know I was in over my head.
The first day of school, I was handed a 15-year-old
textbook and told to 'go get 'em.'
"I soon
found out that book wasn't enough in terms of resources.
I happened to have a colleague, John Morgan, who was
very ingenious, innovative and creative and, with the
financial assistance of a federal grant and the help
of a few other teachers, we began to design educational
games to use in the classroom."
The group
designed a handful of games that ranged from teaching
students manners to educating them about American Indian
culture. Taylor had so much fun designing the
games that after the grant dried up, he wanted to continue.
The others weren't interested, but Ted Feely,
a University of Delaware professor who taught teaching
methods, was. In 1974 Taylor and Feely founded
Educational Materials Associates Inc. and designed their
first product - the United States Map Game.
"One
of the first things we wanted to teach was geography,"
said Taylor, 54. "A good way to begin teaching
American children that subject is by teaching them about
the 50 states and their locations.
"So we came up with a game that teaches this as
well as state capitals and other pertinent information,
such as when the states were admitted to the union.
We found this method worked so well that third- and
fourth-graders were learning all the states and capitals
after just a few games.
"I used the games
in my own classes, and I found that the students loved
them. The games are innovative and they provide
a way to present material that is fun but also challenging."
This initial success motivated Taylor to come
up with other games. He created games to teach
American presidents, the Revolutionary War, Civil War,
both world wars and world politics and geography.
In the fall of 1981 Taylor, his wife and their
two daughters moved to the area when he got a job teaching
at Western Albemarie High School. Although he
enjoyed teaching, he found that there weren't enough
hours in the day to teach and run the game business.
In 1984 Taylor made the decision to leave
the classroom and dedicate all his time and energy to
creating and producing educational games. He bought
out Feely's interest in the company and set up operations
in his home.
There were some tough years while
Taylor and his wife struggled to build the business,
but they persevered.
Taylor's hard work and
belief in what he was doing paid off as EMA celebrated
its 25th anniversary this year.
"When
Bob said he wanted to put all his time and effort into
the game business, it made me feel a little insecure
at first," said Lorraine Taylor, who manages the enterprise
that sells more than 20,000 games a year.
"It
still makes me feel insecure at times because the business
is seasonal. Spring, summer and fall are real
busy times for us, but during the winter, business drops
off.
"I'm a registered nurse and I
work at the Uva Hospital. During the winter months,
I tend to work at the hospital a little more."
The
bread-and-butter game in the Taylors' inventory is the
Civil War game. Since designing and introducing
the game in 1978, Taylor estimates that more than 20
million Americans have played it.
"We currently
have 16 different games in print and every single year
the Civil War game is number one and the presidents
game is number two," Taylor said. "We sell between
7,000 and 10,000 Civil War games every year.
"One
of the things that makes the Civil War map game so popular
is the 44-page booklet I created for it. You don't
need it to play the game, but if you're interested in
learning more about a certain battle, you can go to
the booklet and read up on it.
"Of
the 50 games I've written, I spent the most time researching
and writing about the Civil War and World War II.
It was a labor of love, but a lot of blood, sweat, and
tears went into them."
Taylor said EMA sells
its games at all the major Civil War battlefields, presidential
homes, libraries, museum shops, teachers' stores and
national parks. In addition to the United States,
the games are also sold in the Netherlands, Ireland,
Canada and Bermuda.
Because they're
educational games, every precaution is taken to ensure
absolute accuracy. Taylor runs each new game by
his own experts, after which they undergo additional
on-site inspections.
"Every site goes over
the games with a fine-tooth comb for accuracy," Taylor
said. "It's not enough to say the Vicksburg people
like the Civil War game, the Gettysburg people have
to approve it, too.
"We're extremely proud
of the fact that we've never had a game dismissed or
not accepted. We tell people, and I don't think
it's any exaggeration, that our games provide probably
the easiest, surest and certainly the most affordable
way to learn the basics of a subject.
"Another
nice thing is that you don't have to have a partner
to play. The games are designed so an individual
can compete against himself like in a game of solitaire."
Taylor attributes much of the popularity of his
games to affordability and ease of play. The standard
games retail for $14.95, and the teacher's edition -
that enables a classroom of up to 30 students to play
- retails for less than $40.
All the games
use the same format of play.
In the United
States Map Game, there are 50 cards, each representing
a state. A player selects a card from the deck
and then has to identify the state's location on a map
of the nation.
The difficulty can be ratcheted
up by adding other questions, such as names of state
capitals or demographic data to the mix. When
the questions are answered correctly, the player keeps
the card. If he's incorrect, the card goes back
into the deck.
The player with the most cards
at the end of the game wins. But in reality, Taylor
said, they all win because they're learning.
"My
experience with gaming is that it's sort of infectious,"
Taylor said. "Kids are wanting to learn, they're
enjoying it and they're having fun.
"When
we first founded the business, we did retention studies
to prove we were right. We had some test groups
that were only lectured to and others who actually played
the game and had some lectures.
"We found
that three or four months down the road the ones who
had played the game remembered more than the ones who
had simply taken notes."
Locally EMA's games
are sold at Monticello, Michie Tavern, Ash Lawn-Highland
and at Teacher's Edition. Anthony Gillespie, manager
of Teacher's Edition, said the games are a popular item.
"I think what really sells the games are their
quality and authenticity," Gillespie said. "For
the money, they're a tremendous value.
"I've
played the Civil War game myself, and it's awesome.
Included in the game is a replica of the map General
Grant used during the war.
"Another thing
that makes them popular is that you can play the games
at different levels and continue to learn. I would
say we sell an equal number of the games to parents
and teachers."
A recent addition to EMA's game inventory is Endangered
Wildlife. Players learn about 35 endangered species
as identified by the National Wildlife Federation, 10
habitat areas around the world and the five main environmental
threats, such as poaching and habitat loss.
"I
think sometimes people think of gaming as trivial or
just for fun," Taylor said. "But you can use the
game application to teach all kinds of things.
"It
took me more than 600 hours of research and writing
to develop the wildlife game. The most difficult
part is actually writing the information booklets, because
they have to be completely accurate.
"When
it's all said and done, the average amount of money
we spend to get a new game ready to the printers is
between $5,000 and $10,000. I have about 80 ideas
for games in the back of my mind, but I don't have the
capital or the wherewithal to develop them all."
Taylor said it takes between six months and a
year to develop a new game. Since he started creating
games, he has only had a few duds, one of which was
a game on the languages of the world.
But
win or lose, Taylor said creating games have been so
much fund, he can't consider it work. And although
he left the classroom, he never left the teaching profession.
"There's a lot to be said for teaching young people
and getting a feeling that you're doing something important,"
Taylor said.
"When it comes to the game business,
I know there's a lot of students all over this country
and in other parts of the world who are learning because
of our games.
"I tell teachers that their
classes will be louder when they're playing the games.
But you can put up with that when you know the end result
is the students are learning more basic history and
geography than when they're just being lectured to."
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Authentic...Affordable...Fun-to-Play!
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