Full Size Battleship Program at HRNM

Do you remember playing the Milton Bradley board game Battleship as a kid?  Do you remember the anticipation of scoring hits on your friend's board, or the feeling of nervousness when your opponent scores near hits and misses on your elaborate ship setup?

One of the original MB Battleship game boxes

Instead of all solid blue or green board pieces, we checker-boarded our life size version using both white and blue soft foam tiles.  Given our space constraints in the Odean Vanthul Life at Sea Room, a life-size game board of 50 spaces were used on both sides (10 across x 5 down).  Instead of battleship game pieces, human participants become the ships themselves as they link together to make 4 square battleships, 3 square destroyers and subs, and 1 person patrol boats.  We hope to do the full size (10x10) very soon. 

The game helps to teach visitors, especially younger ones, about simple graphs and reading the X and Y axis, coordinates, quadrants, origin, and basic memorization.  These are useful skills, as many younger visitors are learning the same principles in their math classes during the school year. 

HRNM Education Staff, interns, and volunteers had a great time setting up and conducting the game for visitors this past week and 4th of July weekend.  Hundreds of visitors participated over the past week, as family members took on family members (and sometimes our HRNM Staff).  Come on down and see for yourself!  We will be playing this periodically this summer.

Ed Volunteer Chris Armistead and the full size Battleship in our Life at Sea Room