History

ORIGIN: Winter 2015

• Fatema, Amanda, and Lorenzo conceive of a project to address social identities and examine how students at UofM navigate the college experience
• They receive permission to do an independent study/research course, sponsored by Professor Katie Richards-Schuster
• They spend the first few weeks conducting research on board game models and collecting data via a survey sent out to UM undergrad students about their experiences regarding diversity and social identity
• The research is used to design a board game, including making identity cards, chance cards and a dialogue facilitation guide
• A test run is conducted in SW 305

SW 513: Fall 2016

• Gizem and Zainab take over this project and begin developing it further
• MCSP focus group with 150 participants
• CASC focus group with 12 participants
• Wrote large group discussion questions
• Added supplemental identity cards
• Added new identity cards
• Coded survey data from focus groups

SW 415: Winter 2017

• Created spreadsheet to balance positive and negative cards
• Pros and cons for old design
• Started statistics and resources guide
• Wrote instructions disclaimer
• Wrote final papers for SW 415
• Experimented with different aspects of board games
• Added chance cards

SW 415: Fall 2017

• Optimize Challenge
• Created new design with Diana
• Conducted outreach and built relationships with contacts
• Finalized board game
• Completed statistics and resources pages
• Searched for grants for funding

SW 415: Winter 2018

• Finalized design
• Met with Angela Dillard
• Met with Nick Tobier at the Ginsberg Center
• Applied and received funding from Democracy in Action Fund
• Connected with student orgs
• Conducted focus group with Board Game Club
• Changed name from Maize to Success to Maize to Graduation
• Rewrote feedback survey to be more quantitative
• Rewrote instructions for facilitators (FAQ page)

Fall 2018

• Changed name from Maize to Graduation to Maize Ways
• Developed website and logo
• Created new email address for us to contact people through (maizeways@umich.edu)
• Conducted focus group with the Michigan Health Sciences Career Development Academy
• Purchased game pieces and dice
• Added new wild cards, and changed all wording to make language more inclusive
• Revised the way supplemental identities work in the game
• Implemented debrief activity at the end of the dialogue
• Decided to shift our audience from freshman to all underclassmen
• Analyzed UM Climate Survey Report and put information on website
• Analyzed UM Office of Registrar demographics data from 1999-2015
• Created graphics of data
• Grouped identity cards together so that we can ensure the people playing the game do not end up with similar identities
• Fixed all the instruction sheets to include changes to the game
• Added disclaimers and instructions for the debrief activity
• Formatted all the cards so they look consistent and clear
• Edited the board to look more clear and finalized it completely
• Labeled wild cards to eventually put in a somewhat predetermined order to ensure there is balance between positives and negatives
• Sent emails to past contacts to set up focus groups for next semester