Does learning have to be done in the classroom using a book? According to English teacher James Stuck it doesn’t. On Feb. 24 and 25 he tried out a new way of applying what his students read in the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. His first and third hour Honors English 10 classes participated in a nerf war, using strategies they got from the book.

Each battle was between two teams, each started out at a “gate” at opposite ends of the gym. When they were told to go, each team raced into the gym and took cover immediately behind rollable trash cans; their goal was to get three people into the opposing team’s gate. If a person was shot they were frozen for a minimum of one minute. After the one minute passed they could be unfrozen when someone from their team tagged them, but not before then.

When asked about what the point of the whole experience was, Stuck said, “[The nerf war was] a practical application of the text. [The students] were supposed to take ideas from the text synthesize and apply them to the game.” He also said that it was most about the intrapersonal issues about learning to work with a group and leadership skills; and that most groups ended up being surprised at the capability of the group.

According to sophomore Lindsey Bryant the useful strategy was that, “It helps if your team gets along” and in relation to the book, “[The main character] Ender had to learn to get along with everyone.” Teamwork is an important lesson that you’ll need throughout your life, whether it is now, in high school – or later on in the workplace – working together can always prove to be difficult, especially if you don’t learn to do it early on.

While the nerf war may not seem to be educational to all people, the students actually had to write two separate essays about the whole experience. One essay was comparing and contrasting the book, the nerf war, and an article about actual military tactics. The second essay was about obedience in relation to how they technically broke school rules, while following Stuck’s.

Although the essay most likely weren’t too fun for the students there were memorable moments through out the game. The most memorable moment sophomore Kelsey Carson said, “[Was] Laura falling out of the trash can.” (As part of their team’s strategy they hid people in the trash cans and rolled them towards the gate that they had to capture).

Sophomore Virginia Choe said that her most memorable moment was when her team was trying to capture the gate, but the opposing team was blocking the doorway with a human wall and everyone was pushing trying to squeeze in and ended up falling.