Michigan League of Academic Games

The World Card Wizard
By David Holstein

How to get your whole team involved in making your world card book

The first step is to get some resources. You can get books from the library or Borders or Barnes and Noble. Students can download from a myriad of internet sources, although you should be wary of that information, as it is not always accurate.

Next assign a student to each of the different topics found in the rule book. They will each become an expert in their own area. At the library have students find articles or books related to their topic and download to a flash drive or photo copy select pages (bring lots of change).

The hardest part of the task is to figure out which material is worth keeping. Remember that you can have only 50 pages one sided in your book. I usually go through the student's materials abd remove those things I feel are not pertinent. Make sure that the information collected fits the parameters of the topic, especially the time frame. Several times in the past students have collected accurate information that fell outside the date constraints and was not useful at all.

You might want to consolidate your photocopied material so more can fit on one page. We try to download as much material to fit in the smallest space. However, remember that students have to be able to use the book quickly, so don't make the font too small.

Choose one of your best students to be the editor of the book. They can cut out the best stuff from copied sheets and combine it with downloaded material. The editor, along with help from other students, can choose the order of the pages that they feel will be most effective.

Usually when they put the book together first, it is hard to get to 50 pages. The coach can then go through and decide which topics need to be supplemented and can assign additional research to students to complete the book.

Next time - How to prepare for the current events portion of World Card