The Potential of Made-For-School History-Oriented
Video Games in the Classroom: The Case of Mission
US
Taylor Kessner
University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX
Lauren McArthur Harris
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Keywords: video games; historical thinking; curriculum; simulation games;
social studies education
How to cite this article (APA): Kessner, T., & Harris, L. M. (2025). The potential of made-for-school
history-oriented video games in the classroom: The case of Mission US. Annals of Social Studies Research
for Teachers, 7(1), 54-67. http://doi.org/10.29173/assert85
ABSTRACT
This study examines the potential of Mission US, a history-oriented video game, to foster historical
thinking and reasoning skills in K-12 students. Historical thinking, which involves reasoning like
historians, is a critical component of disciplinary literacy in history education. The game offers students
interactive experiences by placing them in historical scenarios like the American Revolutionary War, the
Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement, allowing them to engage in historical perspective-
taking, cause and consequence analysis, and use of primary source evidence. Through a combination
of content analysis and discourse analysis of gameplay, the study assessed how effectively the game
mechanics support students in practicing historical thinking. Findings suggest Mission US provides
limited but meaningful opportunities for deep engagement in historical thinking. The game includes
numerous historical facts and scenarios but often falls short of requiring complex analysis or impactful
decision-making. While mechanics such as dialogue selection and map navigation encourage
perspective-taking, many interactions remain surface-level. The study concludes that the game, when
used in conjunction with broader educational strategies, can enhance students' historical thinking skills
but is less effective as a stand-alone teaching tool. The research highlights the importance of teacher
involvement in guiding students through the game's content. Effective integration of the game into
classrooms should include guided play sessions, collaborative learning, and reflective activities that
bridge the gap between gameplay and real-world historical analysis. This study emphasizes the need for
supplementary resources and careful handling of sensitive historical topics to fully realize the
educational potential of history-oriented video games.
Published June 29, 2025
Corresponding Author
Taylor Kessner
taylor.kessner@uta.edu
DOI
http://doi.org/10.29173/assert85
Pages: 54-67
Distributed under Creative
Commons
Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0
International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Copyright: Ownership of this
article’s copyright remains with the
author(s), subject to the Creative
Commons license.
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THE RESEARCH
Could video games be places for students to practice historical thinking skills? For decades, the
terms historical thinking and historical reasoning have been cited by scholars, educators, and
policymakers as goals for history learning that expand beyond mere knowledge of historical facts.
Definitions of historical thinking vary (Lévesque & Clark, 2018), but they generally involve discussions
of the cognitive processes involved in historical work. For example, the National Council for the
Social Studies’ College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework (2013) described historical thinking
as a “process of chronological reasoning, which means wrestling with issues of causality,
connections, significance, and context with the goal of developing credible explanations of historical
events and developments based on reasoned interpretation of evidence” (p. 45).
Within these conceptions of historical thinking, some scholars have identified sets of historical
thinking skills and understandings to guide teachers and students in historical work. For example, the
Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness (n.d.) identified six “historical thinking concepts,”
including “take historical perspectives” and “understand the ethical dimension of historical
interpretations” (see https://historicalthinking.ca/historical-thinking-concepts); similarly, van Drie and
van Boxtel (2007) described a historical reasoning framework with six components, including
“contextualization” and “using sources” (p. 89). Taken together, these skills represent critical
elements of literacy in history and are an important aim of ambitious history teaching (Blevins et al.,
2020; Wineburg, 2001). Skills such as analyzing evidence, considering perspectives, and developing
historical arguments are included in many standards documents throughout North America and
Europe, as well as national curricular documents such as the C3 Framework. Video games, with their
potential for engagement and perspective-taking (Dishon & Kafai, 2020), may be worthwhile spaces
to engage students in such historical thinking work (McCall, 2022).
We explored the educational potential of the history-oriented video game Mission US
(https://www.mission-us.org/) in fostering historical thinking skills in K-12 students (Kessner & Harris,
2022). The game, developed for schools, provides interactive experiences where students take on
the roles of historical figures in various missions set in significant historical contexts, such as the
American Revolutionary War, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. The game aims
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to offer players opportunities to develop historical thinking skills, such as perspective-taking,
analyzing cause and consequence, and using primary source evidence.
For our study, we used directed content analysis by playing the game’s missions multiple times and
generating gameplay videos using screen-capture software. We counted “choice points” (where
players had to make a choice to drive the game) and, within those, “history-oriented choice points.”
We analyzed history-oriented choice points for alignment with historical thinking skills. We also
identified five types of game mechanics (how players take in-game actions): dialogue selection,
probing, sorting, map navigation, and trading. We then engaged in additional analysis to examine
how effectively the mechanics offered opportunities for students to practice historical thinking, or to
"think like a historian," as the game's creators intended (see Thirteen Productions, 2025).
FINDINGS
We found Mission US offered limited but meaningful opportunities for students to engage in historical
thinking. While the game included historical content and allowed players to interact with historical
scenarios like the Boston Massacre, it did not consistently require students to engage deeply with the
material. Instead, many of the game’s interactions revolved around surface-level engagement, such
as acquiring historical facts or making simple choices that did not significantly impact the game’s
outcome. We concluded that while Mission US presents opportunities for learning, it works best when
incorporated as part of a larger educational framework rather than as a stand-alone tool. Table 1
shows some of the historical thinking skills that we identified in the missions, with suggestions for
how teachers could connect them to their larger instructional context.
Table 1
Opportunities to Practice Historical Thinking Skills by Mission
Mission
AHQ
Source
Arg
PT
Instructional Suggestions
I. For
Crown or
Colony
21
6
5
9
Students and teachers
could work on
argumentation by
discussing the courtroom
discussion at the end of
Part 5 and considering
stronger alternatives and/or
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identifying the claims and
warrants used in the scene.
II. Flight to
Freedom
28
1
0
29
Students and teachers
could sharpen their inquiry
skills by practicing asking
historical questions about
the game content
throughout their gameplay,
writing them down each
play session, and then
voting on the most
interesting one to guide a
wraparound inquiry activity.
III. A
Cheyenne
Odyssey
31
0
1
56
Students could practice
perspective-taking by
analyzing White settler
narratives about Westward
Expansion and having
students compare those
narratives to their in-game
experiences as the avatar
Little Fox, a Northern
Cheyenne boy, through
writing or discussion
IV. City of
Immigrants
24
1
3
33
Students could engage in
perspective-taking by
considering the perspective
of the game avatar, Lena, a
young Russian immigrant,
and comparing it to other
immigrants’ stories in this
period, such as Chinese,
Irish, or Italian immigrants.
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Students could also draw
on their own family histories
and compare them to their
experience playing as Lena.
V. Up from
Dust
56
24
0
36
Since this mission heavily
features sources, students
could identify different types
of sources in the mission
and compare them to ones
they have examined in
class. Teachers could
generate inquiry questions
for a gallery walk and have
students match in-game
sources to the questions the
sources could contribute to
answering.
Notes. A) There were five missions when we conducted our study. There are seven at the time of this writing. B) This is a
sample of some of the historical thinking skills we analyzed in our study: AHQ = asking historical questions; Source =
using sources; Arg = argumentation; PT = perspective-taking.
Our study found that key game mechanics, such as dialogue selection and map navigation, provided
some opportunities for deeper engagement. Students could consider historical perspectives or
navigate historical events through these mechanics, but these moments were unevenly distributed
across the game’s missions. The trading and sorting mechanics, which involved interacting with
historical figures and making decisions based on their roles, showed promise for engaging students
in more complex historical thinking. However, the game often failed to provide immediate feedback or
meaningful consequences for players’ decisions, limiting the depth of learning. Our study highlights
the tension between the game’s educational aspirations and its practical limitations. While the game
is designed to promote historical thinking, many of the opportunities to practice these skills were
implicit rather than integral to gameplay. We suggest games like Mission US are most effective when
leveraged as part of a broader learning ecology, where teachers can scaffold students’
understanding and guide them through historical thinking processes.
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Still, we identified 588 opportunities for students to make choices about historical content, which adds
up to 1.6 times per minute of gameplay. Considering these numbers in the context of a typical 50-
minute history class, it adds up to 78 history-relevant choices per class period. Despite not all of
these choices being particularly deep, we point out that such engagement remains impressive
compared to more traditional forms of teaching and learning about history.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHERS
To effectively integrate Mission US into K-12 classrooms, teachers should view the game as part of a
whole, rather than as a standalone activity. Mission US’s potential lies in its ability to immerse
students in historical scenarios, offering a dynamic way to engage with the past. Nevertheless, to
foster genuine historical thinking, teachers will need to carefully structure wraparound classroom
activities to ensure students are not simply playing, but critically engaging with the content. In what
follows, we provide some examples of classroom structures that could guide such engagement.
Guided Group Play Sessions
Teachers may opt to play the game as a whole class, projecting the game from a classroom
computer. This could be particularly useful in classrooms with limited access to technology. During
gameplay, teachers can pause at critical moments to facilitate class discussions. For instance, when
students are asked to choose whether to help a British soldier or a patriot in the American Revolution
(Mission I), teachers can encourage them to consider the historical implications of each choice. By
asking questions like, “How might this decision affect public perception of the revolution?” or “What
would the consequences be for ordinary people like your character?” teachers can guide students
toward deeper historical thinking.
Collaborative Play
Students can also play in pairs or triads, with the stipulation that students come to agreements on in-
game choices before proceeding. This format retains the value of collaborative discussion and
decision-making, which itself requires higher-order reasoning. This approach backgrounds teacher
expertise more than does a group play session, but it foregrounds student agency. Additionally, such
a participant structure creates opportunities for more students to actively participate, as opposed to a
whole-group dynamic in which some students may be less comfortable contributing.
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Post-Game Reflection
After completing a mission, students should engage in reflective activities that encourage them to
think critically about their experiences. Activities could include writing assignments where students
compare their in-game decisions to the actions of real historical figures or debates where they defend
their choices using evidence from the game and primary sources. Students could also discuss the
different types of game mechanics (e.g., dialogue selection, sorting) and how they allowed for them
to better understand (or not) the historical period. These activities help bridge the gap between the
virtual world and real-world historical analysis.
Incorporating Other Resources
The Mission US website offers several companion resources (https://www.mission-us.org/teach/).
The primary source documents they provide teachers can be critical for developing historical thinking
skills. Teachers could also pair gameplay with other resources like scholarly articles or
documentaries. For example, students playing Mission V on the Great Depression could also analyze
photographs from the Dust Bowl, or read excerpts from firsthand accounts of the era. By comparing
these materials with their in-game experience, students can develop a more nuanced understanding
of the period. A particularly useful strategy Taylor used when using Mission US in his middle school
classroom was to have students play the game in pairs and then work together to use the companion
documents to answer questions like, “How accurate is this mission? Where did the developers get it
right? Get it wrong?” Using primary source documents in this way to construct historical arguments
about the accuracy of historically themed new media not only supports students’ development of
disciplinary literacy in history, but also gives students practice interrogating the use of history in
popular media—a crucial skill for citizenship in the 21st century.
Cross-Curricular Connections
The game’s missions provide opportunities for cross-curricular learning, particularly with subjects like
English and geography. For example, students could write creative narratives from the perspective of
their in-game characters, incorporating historical details they learned during the mission. In
geography, students might map the locations they visited in the game and discuss how geography
influenced historical events, such as the escape routes used by enslaved people in Mission II, which
is set before the Civil War.
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Addressing Sensitive Topics
Some missions in Mission US deal with sensitive topics, such as enslavement and Indigenous
displacement. In fact, the Flight to Freedom mission, which deals with such difficult histories, has
been removed from the Mission US website at the time of writing pending redesign
(https://www.mission-us.org/games/flight-to-freedom/), possibly due to these very concerns of
racialized (re)trauma. Teachers should approach these topics with care, ensuring students
understand the historical trauma associated with these events. Classroom discussions could focus
on the ethical dimensions of these issues, encouraging students to consider the long-term effects of
historical injustices. Teachers can also use these moments to discuss how history is represented in
media, prompting students to critically evaluate the game’s portrayal of complex topics. As sensitive
topics and difficult histories always carry potential for (re)traumatization (Stoddard, 2021), teachers
should emphasize thoughtfulness and exercise their professional discretion in choosing how and
whether to attend to these topics, particularly in the context of a game, which could present the
appearance of trivializing historical injustice.
CONCLUSION
Mission US can be a valuable tool for engaging students in historical thinking, but it should be used
strategically within a well-planned curriculum. By providing historical context, guiding students
through critical moments, and incorporating supplementary materials, teachers can help students
move beyond surface-level engagement and develop deeper historical thinking skills.
Q & A with Taylor Kessner & Lauren Harris
Question #1
Teacher’s Question:
How can history-oriented video games be integrated into the inquiry arc of the C3 Framework?
Taylor & Lauren’s Response:
Video games make excellent objects of inquiry from several perspectives—or on several levels, if
you will. A “level one” approach could use a video game to think about how accurately or
faithfully it portrays events, concepts, or phenomena. For a game like Mission US, teachers and
students could couple gameplay with more traditional approaches to inquiry using primary source
documents to answer questions like, “Does Mission US provide an accurate representation of the
Great Depression?” (Mission V: Up from Dust). Games can be used in this same way for any of
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the content areas described in the C3 Framework; for example, the game Offworld Trading
Company for economics. On a second level, teachers and students can get more “meta.” Games
are designed interactions within designed environments, and those designs are undertaken in a
particular time and place, which influences to a significant degree what stories games ultimately
tell. Teachers and students could look at history-themed games and think about the game
designers' choices about the versions of history they tell and how the zeitgeist in which these
games were designed influenced those choices. As a brief example, a recent project of Taylor’s
showed how Ubisoft, the developers of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, made design choices in
the last decade that resulted in significantly greater representation of Queer folks, even when
such public representation would have been unlikely according to the historical record (Root-
Williams et al., 2024). This second level of inquiry gives teachers and students the opportunity to
think deeply about the interplay between the present and the past and the historical narratives
that result from that interplay.
Question #2
Teacher’s Question:
Games and simulations are often billed as “empathy machines” which facilitate student
perspective-taking through immersive experiences. What are the potentials of history-oriented
video games to support student understanding and the use of other types of historical thinking?
Taylor & Lauren’s Response:
Encouraging perspective-taking through immersive experiences is precisely what games are
good at. In fact, games are not actually very good at the things schools traditionally focus on, like
content acquisition, because content acquisition often requires lots of repetition, something good,
engaging games typically avoid in order to maximize interest and minimize boredom. Rather,
games are good at putting players into the shoes of someone else in a different situation. Then,
playing as that person who has their own identity, needs, wants, goals, and tools for achieving
these, all of which are different from the player’s lived experience, gives players a sense of what
it is to live in a certain world as a certain kind of person. Though we focused in our study on
historical thinking (see Wineburg, 1991a, 1991b, 2001) and reasoning (see van Drie & van
Boxtel, 2008; van Boxtel & van Drie, 2018), there are other frameworks worth considering in both
scholarship and teaching, such as historical empathy (Endacott and Brooks, 2018) and historical
consciousness (Nordgren, 2016; Rüsen, 2004).
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Although not focused on a made-for-school game, Gilbert’s (2019) study of students’ developing
a sense of historical empathy through playing Assassin’s Creed exemplifies this potential.
Historical empathy, or the “process of students’ cognitive and affective engagement with
historical figures to better understand and contextualize their lived experiences, decisions, or
actions” (Endacott & Brooks, 2018, p. 209), may be one of the most salient affordances of video
games in history and social studies education. These in-game experiences become a framework
within which new information, understandings, and ways of thinking can fit, increasing the kind of
understandings about the past and the world that even schools strive for. In addition to
perspective-taking, games can potentially engage students in other types of historical thinking, as
we found in this study (see Table 1). Previous scholarship on games and simulations for teaching
history has also identified potential historical thinking opportunities. Kurt Squire’s (2011) seminal
work using Civilization in an after-school program showed how history-themed games can be
used to develop deep understandings of the complex relationship between context and cause
and effect. Teachers might consider pairing a game like Civilization with an anchor text like
Guns, Germs, and Steel (Diamond, 1997) or Day of Empire (Chua, 2007) to support intertextual
activities (Gee, 2003) that help learners come to understand the relationship between events,
concepts, and phenomena across texts and genres. Such depth of appreciation for the
relationship between the past, the present, and how we narrate each in relation to each other
forms the bedrock of historical consciousness. In particular, placing students into simulated
worlds, particularly when we give them roles and tools to solve problems embedded within
historical narratives, positions them to develop a deep understanding of how citizens and leaders
tell certain stories about the past to shape the present and future.
Question #3
Teacher’s Question:
What specific examples can you provide about where the game did not engage students in deep
historical thinking? Can you provide suggestions on how to provide the scaffolding needed to do
so?
Taylor & Lauren’s Response:
Frankly, most of the game does not engage players in deep historical thinking—and that is
actually okay. For example, in Mission I: For Crown or Colony?, players probably are not thinking
historically when they meet Paul Revere, and he introduces himself to the player as a member of
the Sons of Liberty. This interaction with Paul Revere is simply a moment in which the player
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gets some information that becomes relevant later, but, at the time, there really is not much for
the player to do with that piece of information. But again, that is okay. Just like not every line in a
great work of literature can be the apex of literary devices, and just like not every moment of a
video game is a boss battle, historical thinking necessarily needs some basic facts with which
students can reason. The best way to scaffold students in thinking historically about games is to
provide wraparound activities like the kind we discuss in Table 1 and our answer to Question #4.
Question #4
Teacher’s Question:
What suggestions for “wraparound classroom activities” do you recommend to ensure students
not simply play, but critically engage with the content?
Taylor & Lauren’s Response:
When designing learning experiences for students, we often think about the phrase, “the task on
the table.” If the task on the table for students is simply to play the game, that is really all we can
reasonably expect many of them to do. To get students to think historically about the game,
teachers need to put a task on the table that requires students to think historically. Here is where
teachers can turn back to the idea of inquiry as outlined in the C3 Framework and elsewhere: ask
students a question that requires them to think historically about the content and representations
within the game and give them primary source documents to help them do that thinking. As an
example, when I (Taylor) taught with Mission US in my 7th grade U.S. History classroom, I found
primary source documents to use alongside the game. I had a variety of approaches for using
these documents with the game, depending on where we were in the year—i.e., how comfortable
my students were with historical thinking at any given point in the year. Early on, I would give
them questions and specific document sets to guide their inquiry. In Mission I: For Crown or
Colony?, for example, I asked, “What happened at the ‘Boston Massacre?’” and, “How does the
Mission US representation of the Boston Massacre compare to what you found?” and I would
pair those questions with Mission US gameplay and historical sources like Paul Revere’s
engraving of the event and recorded eyewitness accounts. This gives students opportunities to
engage in historical thinking and historical literacy skills like sourcing, contextualizing, and
corroborating (see Reisman & Wineburg, 2008; Wineburg, 2001 for more on these skills).
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Question #5
Teacher’s Question:
How can teachers engage students in analyzing narrative and representation in history-oriented
video games?
Taylor & Lauren’s Response:
Overall, Mission US does a good job of including diverse perspectives in U.S. history. For
example, players engage Mission II: Flight to Freedom as a young Black girl, Lucy, who is fleeing
enslavement in the American South. (However, it is worth noting this mission is, at the time of
this writing, unavailable and undergoing revision). And, in Mission III: A Cheyenne Odyssey,
players play as Little Fox, a young Northern Cheyenne boy experiencing the gradual movement
west of White settlers. While students typically learn about Westward Expansion in the context
of, for example, Manifest Destiny, Mission III gives students the opportunity to experience and
further examine the counternarrative to this Eurocentric justification of expansion into the
ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples. But even in Mission I: For Crown or Colony?, though
players play as a young White boy in Boston, they encounter a fictionalized Phyllis Wheatley, the
first published Black female poet. Through this meeting, the game confronts players with a
counter to the oft-assumed narrative of Black illiteracy in the American colonies. Missions added
after our study focus on the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the experiences of Japanese
Americans forced into camps during World War II. Teachers can help students think about
narrative and representation in these contexts by working with students around questions like,
“What was life like for Black folks in the American colonies, and how does that compare to the
portrayal in Mission US?” In the Assassin’s Creed study (Root-Williams et al., 2024) we
mentioned as part of our response to Question #1, Taylor and colleagues asked how the
representation of Queer folks had evolved in the series amidst the changing attitudes of the
modern era, finding that in some of the games Queer folks are over-represented when viewed in
light of the historical record concerning how public-facing one could be with their sexual
orientation, leading to a potentially harmful flattening of Queer experience historically. Teachers
could ask similar questions about this and other kinds of representation in games, like, “Does
Mission US’ choice to present Phyllis Wheatley in the game potentially paint a sanitized narrative
of the Black experience in the American Colonies?”
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Taylor Kessner
I am an Assistant Professor of Secondary Social Studies Education at SUNY Geneseo and a former middle and
high school social studies teacher. As a K-12 teacher I utilized games- and simulations-based learning, which
has been the focus of my academic career since. My recent work has examined how avatar identity and game
mechanics create opportunities for players (learners) to experience visceral emotion and take up opportunities
to practice using disciplinary skills in dynamic environments. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my
daughter and wife, hiking and camping with my dog, playing guitar and piano, and playing video games.
Lauren McArthur Harris
I am a Professor of History Education at Arizona State University and a former 9th-grade world history teacher.
Throughout my career, I have researched representations of history in curricular resources and investigated how
teachers teach history in schools. Recent scholarship has focused on teachers’ use of online resources and the
experiences of educators on state social studies standards writing committees. I am the co-editor of Teaching
Difficult Histories in Difficult Times: Stories of Practice (link). I enjoy hiking, running, and traveling with my
husband and daughter.