In this post, I will explain how we implemented and assessed each of the game elements during the Civil Air Patrol encampment. Administratively, there were several moving parts that had to be accounted for each day. Failing to have clear procedures and thorough scorekeeping would have made this experiment impossible.
Knowledge Book Memorization
The staff handed each in-flight cadet a knowledge book upon their arrival at the encampment. The knowledge book included quotes that the cadets had to memorize. Many of these quotes would be useful throughout their cadet career. The entire booklet had 30 quotes, and each page had five. Each of the quotes was worth 10 points.
Sample page from knowledge book
Cadets would study each quote until they could memorize it verbatim. Once they felt they could succeed with the task, they would find a member of the SET team. The team leaders instructed SET team members to stay readily available all day to handle quote attempts. Reporting to the SET team member, the cadet would request to recite a quote and present their book. The SET team member would listen to the quote recitation, and if correct, he would stamp the block next to the quote, indicating success and make an annotation in the log they carried. Afterwards, they returned the book to the cadet. If the cadet failed, the SET team member returned the book and encouraged the cadet to try again after more study.
Once cadets had successfully recited all five quotes from a single page, they could then attempt to recite the entire page to a SET team member. Reciting an entire page was worth an additional 100 points. A cadet had an opportunity to recite all quotes and all pages successfully for 1,000 points.
Recording Results and Recognizing Achievement
The team collected and recorded all SET member log sheets in the master spreadsheet for the day. Public affairs received reports of the top five point earners to include in the newsletter. The team awarded a certificate of accomplishment to individuals who completed the entire booklet at the end of the encampment and praised them in front of their peers when they reached the milestone.
Flights earned 10 points for each flight member who successfully recited a quote only when all members of their flight successfully recited the same quote. It was important for flight members to use strategy to earn points and encourage teamwork to work on the same quotes. Flight leadership received daily reports showing the progress of their flights. Leadership could use the reports to encourage specific flight members to focus their efforts.
Flight results for quotes
Room Inspection
Each day, in-flight cadets would arrange their rooms according to the standards published. Each day, the SET team would inspect the rooms, and record the results both in the rooms and on their log sheets. Affixed to each cadet’s bed was a card with a matrix indicating each inspection date and the following inspection items:
- Bed
- Drawer
- Shoes
- Hangers
- Shelf
- Towel
Bed card
When the SET team inspected the living area for each cadet, they would mark the card with a red dot for unsatisfactory (0 points), satisfactory (10 points), or exceeding standards (20 points). With this visual dashboard, cadets could immediately see how well they did on the inspection. The SET team would also hand in their log sheets, and the staff would enter the data into the master spreadsheet.
Each day, the team provided the results to flight commanders so they could help coach their flight. Flights would receive points for their flight only when each member received a satisfactory or exceeded standards rating for a particular item. For instance, if every member rated the beds as satisfactory or exceeds standards, the flight would gain the points assigned to each member.
The team assigned SET members different rooms to evaluate each day to control for the halo effect.
Flight Guidon
Early in the week, the leaders assigned each flight the task of creating a guidon for their flight. This was a team-building exercise that accompanied the flight patch design exercise. Each flight received two hours to prepare a guidon. All members of the SET team then judged the guidon. First place earned 200 points, second place 100, and third place 50 points.
Flight Patch
Similarly, the flight patch exercise followed the guidon format. In this exercise, the flights were to draw out a patch that would represent their flight. Again, the SET team judged the designs and ranked them from first through third. The judges included points in the overall flight scorecard.
Open Ranks Inspections
An open ranks inspection is a detailed prescribed set of movements used to evaluate the flights on readiness. The open ranks inspection required attention to detail from all members of the flight, including the flight commanders and flight sergeants. The team judged the flights based on their accuracy and precision. Each flight had two SET team members assigned to evaluate it. One SET member would watch the overall process, and the other SET member would act as the inspector for the open ranks process.
Using a detailed grading sheet, the evaluators assigned points to each flight for performance. Flights received points for overall uniform wear, personal appearance, military bearing, and procedures. The inspectors combined their results and recorded them in the master spreadsheet.
Uniform Inspections
During the open ranks inspection, the evaluators graded each cadet on their uniform wear. Specific items evaluated were personal appearance, garments, accouterments, footwear, and military bearing. The evaluators awarded points to cadets according to needs improvement (0 points), satisfactory (1 point), or excellent (2 points).
They tallied points for each inspection for every cadet and awarded total points per flight regardless of the result. They entered points into the master spreadsheet after each inspection.
Uniform inspection form
Sports
On four evenings, cadets participated in either ultimate frisbee or kickball. If the team declared a winner for the evening, the flight earned 50 points. In a round-robin manner, flights either competed against each other or against the cadre. Senior members served as referees or scorekeepers. The team logged the results of the event in the master spreadsheet.
Flight News
Each day, each flight put up four members of its flight to present flight news. The four members took on the roles of an anchor, local news, weather, and sports. The SET team scored each performance on a specially developed rubric. The SET team scored the flights on preparation, organization, collaboration, adherence to the news theme, use of visual aids, articulation, humor, accuracy, time management (9 minutes), and overall quality. The team averaged the SET member results, multiplied the average by 10, and recorded the figures in the spreadsheet.
Aerospace Education Quizzes
One piece of the Air Force curriculum that we had to address was Air Force heritage. Rather than give dry lectures, we turned it into a game. We were fortunate to have a dedicated Aerospace Education Officer assigned to the encampment. He could assemble resources to support the activity. Basically, the cadets watched 30 minutes of Air Force history documentaries. During the subsequent 30 minutes, the cadets participated in 30-minute quiz bowls. Each flight had to put forward four cadets to answer questions regarding the video they just watched. Each team competed through a buzzer system. First and second teams showed up on the visual display. The team that answered the question earned points. When no team answered the question, the last team to buzz in got the question and could consult with the rest of their flight. The team entered the points each flight earned into the spreadsheet. The flights participated in seven rounds of quizzes.
Cadet Physical Fitness Test
The last element taken into consideration was the cadet physical fitness test. This is the same test that cadets must pass for each of their promotions. The test’s difficulty is based on the level of promotion. The evaluation covers four areas: sit and reach, push-ups, sit-ups, and the mile run. Regarding the game, cadets received points for each area they passed in terms of their promotion. If cadets earned points, the flight also earned points. The staff gave a form to the unit commander indicating the results whenever a cadet met the test requirements. Naturally, the staff entered the results into the master spreadsheet.
The SET team definitely earned their keep throughout the week. Their attention to detail helped make the scorekeeping easy.
In the next post, Layering game mechanics on top of a Civil Air Patrol summer encampment, Part 3, I will talk about the results.
Additional Reading
- Civil Air Patrol a Key Player in Operation Moonwatch
- Layering Game Mechanics on Top of a Civil Air Patrol Summer Encampment, Part 1
- Layering Game Mechanics on Top of a Civil Air Patrol Summer Encampment, Part 3
- How to be a Successful #CivilAirPatrol Commander
- How Technology Helped Us Find a Missing Aircraft
- How Technology Helped Our Air Force Operations Evaluation
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