Fantasy is no longer just for football.

Eric Nelson, a UW alumnus and high school social studies teacher in Minnesota, realized this when he had the idea to create a social learning game that inspires students to become fans of learning worldwide news and politics. The result, Fantasy Geopolitics, is an interactive classroom learning tool that engages students by adding a game-spin to the news.

Here’s how it works: students draft a team of countries and follow them in the news. Every time their country or leader is mentioned in the news, they score points. To win, students must increase their awareness of the news and adjust their teams accordingly.

Fantasy Geopolitics gained interest after Nelson pitched the idea at the Midwest Startup Weekend EDU. 4.0 Schools, a company that invests in educational entrepreneurs, accepted the new game into its launch program. This allowed Nelson to test Fantasy Geopolitics in other classrooms, where he found it helps other teachers to solve problems, too.

“Working with 4.0 Schools has been some of the best professional development I’ve ever had as a teacher and young entrepreneur,” Nelson said. “The culture at 4.0 Schools revolves around curiosity, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration.”

Nelson is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for his project. According to Nelson, the funding from Kickstarter will allow the program to continue growing, integrate more world map data, improve news headlines and inspire students to learn passionately and enthusiastically.

The campaign already has raised more than $11,000, exceeding the goal of $10,000.