HISTORY 217
History Escape Room: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Past
Justin C. Leroy, Sarah M. Balakrishnan
Description from DukeHub
Students will engage in a semester long 'escape room,' working with primary source evidence to solve mysteries from the past. In groups of five, students will work collaboratively with each other and with professors to solve historical mysteries from 20th century US, colonial Africa, early modern Europe, Asia and elsewhere. New historical evidence will be released to groups every week in order to simulate an escape room, each class building toward a solution at the end of the semester. This course is designed to teach students how to 'do' history, by introducing historical methods, lenses, data management and analytical tools. At heart, historians are detectives of the past. They take on the world's greatest mysteries.
Skills
- research methodsAI review: "working with primary source evidence to solve mysteries from the past"
AI-resilient: 2 of 5
- No: Physical, lab or field work
- Yes: Live work with people · "collaboratively"
- Yes: Judgment someone is accountable for · "justice"
- No: A craft you practice with your hands or body
- No: Small, in-person format
The checks lean on Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025), which found generative AI applies least to physical work and hands-on work with people. A signal, not a promise. How the score works
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