DOCTOR WHO GUNPOWDER PLOT RESOURCE ADDS A BANG TO TEACHING HISTORY IN THE CLASSROOM

The Gunpowder Plot is the latest free downloadable Adventure Game from Doctor Who featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy and - for the first time - Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams and Ralf Little as Guy Fawkes.

The game will give children the chance to step back in time and interact with famous figures such as Guy Fawkes and discover what was happening at this incendiary moment in Britain’s history.

The game, co-produced by BBC Learning, has been specifically designed with learning elements built in and allows for historical facts to be discovered through play. Historical references and key objects are woven in throughout the game.

The game will be available to download from October 31 but the teachers’ resources to support The Gunpowder Plot and allow for planning are available now from the BBC teachers website http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/doctorwho_adventuregame/

The official Doctor Who website  - www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho - also has a sneak preview of the game and interviews with some of the key cast including Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Ralf Little and Phil Daniels.

The Teacher’s Resource Pack is designed for all primary school ages and early secondary and will allow students to learn through game play, investigation and in the classroom. It will enable them to discover when and where the Gunpowder Plot took place; what the Gunpowder Plot was; who the plotters were and why they wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament; and what actually happened in November 1605.
 
A final section will encourage students to create a museum or exhibition piece for the whole school.

 There will also be three short films available online designed to demonstrate the teaching worth of the game. The films will show York school children and teachers at a special ‘tester’ session as they are set challenges, try out the game and give their reaction.  Controller of BBC Learning, Saul Nassé  said: “Computer games are now embedded in children’s culture and are almost an unavoidable part of their everyday lives. From an educational perspective it is increasingly making more and more sense to exploit that fact and to incorporate learning into a medium that children willingly embrace. This new game is a fantastic way to teach history because it’s gaming meets Doctor Who, meets adventure and action  – all the things children love.” The teacher’s pack will have further resources available to support other programmes of study including Childhood (released 31/10/2011), Crime and Punishment (released 05/11/2011), and London Life in 1605 (released 10/01/2012).

The Gunpowder Plot is the fifth Adventure Game and since launch the games have received over 2.6 million downloads.
 
To find out more about The Gunpowder Plot visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/the_gunpowder_plot

For more information about the Adventure Games visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/theadventuregames