Patent Application
20070052169
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of Invention
This invention generally relates to educational board games, specifically to question and answer trivia games pertaining to different aspects of Foreign Studies Education such as, history, culture, geography, and language learning.
2. Prior Art
While an abundance of board games exist, none could be found which relate to the various aspects of Foreign Studies Education such as, history, geography, culture, language, etc.
Originally these games cover topics such as TV shows, movies, US history, African American achievements, English language structure, popular culture, new events, etc., none of which focus on subjects dealing with Foreign language, history, geography or culture.
The prior art reveals a number of board games having varying objectives, modes of play, and goals. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,739 to Yu 1998 a learning aid that focuses on Foreign Language grammar and vocabulary.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,816 to Hunt 1979 relates to a game apparatus for teaching, rewarding, and enjoying language facts and concepts by accumulating or losing point totals while classifying examples of grammar or language facts into categories.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,439 to Lott 1992 relates to a multi-colored game board with a plurality of squares and method of playing a game that pertains to the history and culture of African American people.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,354 to Easley 1998 relates to board games and to education and entertainment by answering questions in a hierarchy extending from most to least difficult questions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,346 to Dillhoff 1994 relates to games and more particularly educational word games involving reading, pronunciation, spelling, and/or defining of selected words.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,370 to Morris 2000 pertains to a board game that includes several elements of gaming together with education and entertainment covering different subject matters.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,398 to Kolleth 2000 relates to a board game in which a player throws a dice and progresses around a board answering questions dealing with educational, recreational or promotional purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,939 to Robinson, et al. 1993 relates to a board game providing, primarily, thought provoking questions on various educational disciplines allowing participants to challenge each other's responses to questions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,569 to Walker 1995 relates to an Afro American educational quiz game that works to enlighten the general public on the contributions and achievements of black people in various fields.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,854 to Weiss 1991 relates to an educational board game that is intended to teach and familiarize people of all ages to the meanings of figurative expressions used in the English language.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,805 to Medlock 1991 relates to an educational board game wherein players move along respective paths answering questions chosen by a spin of a question and answer selector.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,546 to Rita 1986 relates to a game utilizing cards and answer boards with the objective of all players playing along with each question.
In the past, attempts to make learning more enjoyable have produced some games. The problem being that none of them focused on the Foreign Studies domain, instead they were focused on and developed in conjunction with the core curriculum classes such as, language, math, social studies, and science.
Although there are a few entertaining products for supplementing Foreign Studies education, many of those products are computer oriented and only allow for one participant to have access to the program at a time, thereby requiring him/her to play and compete against the computer wherein making competition difficult and unrealistic for the player as the game has been programmed to produce all of the correct answers.
Also, such programs are focused strictly on the basics of Foreign Studies, more specifically on language leaning basics such as simple word translations and/or conjugations thereby eliminating the availability of complete Foreign Studies education. Also, these programs are produced for young learners and are difficult, if not impossible, to adapt to the more complex minds of secondary or higher level students.
A variety of different board games have heretofore been known which have, as an object thereof, winning of the game by successfully answering questions. Such games, however, are often protracted and slow moving, thus losing the interest of younger participants who desire a quick progression from start to finish. Yet further, prior games have not been readily adaptable for use of the same game board with a variety of different question and answer cards whereby questions in different category groups may be readily substituted.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to provide a game board to provide a method of play pertaining to the language, history, culture and geography of foreign countries in a way that is positive, educational, and entertaining.
(b) to provide an enjoyable game that focuses on the arts and electives part of school curriculum.
(c) to provide an interactive means for supplementing Foreign Studies education wherein a plurality of players may participate at the same time and compete against other players of varying levels of Foreign Studies competency.
(d) to provide a game that goes beyond the very basics of Foreign Studies education and incorporates many aspects of learning including, language, geography, culture, and history.
(e) to provide a game that is easily adaptable to varying levels of knowledge and brain complexity thereby providing a suitable challenge for beginners upwards to experts.
(f) to provide a game that has a path that moves from a definite start position to a fixed stop position in a reasonable amount of time whereby maintaining the interests and desire of participants.
(g) to provide a game board that is easily adaptable for use of the same game board with a variety of different question and answer cards whereby questions in different category groups or different difficulty levels may be readily substituted.
Further objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.
In accordance with the present invention, an educational question and answer board game that comprises a multi-colored game board on which is illustrated a path of a succession of eight ninety degree angles. The playing course defines the path of travel for the players, and is further composed of a plurality of joined playing spaces. The majority of the playing spaces contain indicia which denote one category drawn from a plurality of question categories and the remaining spaces contain indicia which direct that any player landing thereon must then move in a certain prescribed manner. In addition, one playing space contain indicia which designates that playing space as the playing space upon which the play of the board game is to commence. Also, an end space is located within the playing course. The first player to traverse the playing course enters the end space and the first player that correctly answers a plurality of questions drawn from a predetermined category is the winner of the game.
The educational question and answer board game includes a plurality of question cards, and each card contains questions from each of the possible categories. The question categories are drawn from the arts and electives part of school curriculum and include, but are not limited to the following topics, foreign language, history, culture, and geography.
Also, the game includes a chance device that indicates how many spaces a player is to traverse during each turn of play.
a shows a view of playing board.
a shows a close-up view of a question and answer card with examples of possible questions and answers.
a-4h show close-up views of forward movement cards with examples of indicia.
i shows a close-up view of a backward movement card with an example of indicia.
10 category B playing space
12 category O playing space
14 category R playing space
16 category Y playing space
18 category G playing space
20 backward movement playing space
22 Start playing space
24 End playing space
26 category B spot on question and answer card
28 category O spot on question and answer card
30 category R spot on question and answer card
32 category Y spot on question and answer card
34 category G spot on question and answer card
36 example of category B question and answer on question and answer card
38 example of category O question and answer on question and answer card
40 example of category R question and answer on question and answer card
42 example of category Y question and answer on question and answer card
44 example of category G question and answer on question and answer card
46 playing course
48 playing piece
50 laying board
52 question and answer card
54 number card
As shown in
In order to physically represent each question category 26, 28, 30, 32, 34,
As shown in
i illustrate an indicator means. The preferred indicator means includes a plurality of number cards 54 which determine how many playing spaces 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 a player may move in a forward or backward motion during a turn of play.
The rules of the board game are straight forward and simple. The board game must be played with at least two players. Each player should set their playing piece 48 upon the START space 22 so that the playing pieces 48 move forward from the START space 22 in order to advance around the playing course 46 to the END space 24. When the playing piece 48 of a player commences on the START space 22, he/she must first answer a question 36, 38, 40, 42, 44 from the category 26 indicated on the START space 22 by the indicia of the playing space 10, 22. In order to advance around the playing course 46 to the END space 24 the players must continue to correctly answer questions 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, the category of which is indicated by the indicia on the playing space 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 24 when said player answers a question 36, 38, 40, 42, 44 correctly, he/she may continue their advancement around the playing course 46 by drawing said number card 54 and moving forward or backwards as many spaces as indicated by the indicia on the card 54. Said player's turn ends when they incorrectly answer any said questions 36, 38, 40, 42, 44. Game play then moves to a player that is to the left of said previous player. Should a player, during their turn of game play, land on said playing space 20, they must regress their playing piece 48 back to the START space 22 and wait for their next turn. Game play continues in this manner until the first player successfully traverses the playing course 46 from the START space 22 to the END space 24 where said first player must answer a plurality of questions 36 from the category 26 indicated by the indicia on the END space 24.
From the description above, a number of advantages of my Foreign Studies board game become evident:
(a) to provide a game board to provide a method of play pertaining to the language, history, culture and geography of foreign countries in a way that is positive, educational, and entertaining.
(b) to provide an enjoyable game that focuses on the arts and electives part of school curriculum.
(c) to provide an interactive means for supplementing Foreign Studies education wherein a plurality of players may participate at the same time and compete against other players of varying levels of Foreign Studies competency.
(d) to provide a game that goes beyond the very basics of Foreign Studies education and incorporates many aspects of learning including, language, geography, culture, and history.
(e) to provide a game that is easily adaptable to varying levels of knowledge and brain complexity thereby providing a suitable challenge for beginners upwards to experts.
(f) to provide a game that has a path that moves from a definite start position to a fixed stop position in a reasonable amount of time whereby maintaining the interests and desire of participants.
(g) to provide a game board that is easily adaptable for use of the same game board with a variety of different question and answer cards whereby questions in different category groups or different difficulty levels may be readily substituted.
Accordingly, the reader will see that the Foreign Studies board game can be used as an effective and entertaining means of learning, studying, practicing, and acquiring foreign country knowledge, and of self-evaluating the acquisition of that information. Furthermore, the Foreign Studies board game has the additional advantages in that
Although the description above contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. For example, the game can utilize other question categories such as, indigenous life, archeology, travel, current events, popular culture, etc.
Thus the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.
