Peg actually started her education career
teaching in lowa for 25 years. She began her federal service
as an Albert Einstein distinguished educator
fellow at NASA headquarters in 2000.
And she created the NASA Explorer School's program.
In 2006 she joined NOAA's National Ocean Service,
where she led a development team
that provided web-based products and professional development,
including NOAA planet stewards,
a program that offers opportunities
for professional development and community building.
Peg has provided science education
workshops for over 30 years in the United States
as well as around the world, and she served
as a US Department of State Embassy Science
fellow in 2014 at the American Embassy in Hanoi,
Vietnam in climate education.
While she says she's retired she's not really;
she may be even busier than she's been before,
as a consultant in STEM programs.
And with that, Peg, I turn the mic over to you.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Bruce, and hi, everyone.
Nice to see some familiar faces on the attendees list.
Today we're going to talk about gaming and gaming
has a very large definition.
But we're going to be talking about games
with a purpose today.
And while you can play games in any field of science,
we're going to kind of zero in
on using games to learn Earth science.
But before we start let's talk about the history of games.
And as a little trivia game itself,
Bruce, let's go to the first poll question.
Sounds good.
So we've opened up this first poll question
and for those of you who are not familiar,
just click on your screen.
We'll give everybody just a minute or two to participate
and then we'll close it up and we'll see what people think.
So if everybody could just go to their screen
and click on the correct answer,
how far back in history do we find games.
Give it just another few seconds.
Okay, that seems pretty good. Let's see what we've got.
Can you see the results, Peg?
No.
No, okay. Well, it looks like
about 4-percent of the people voted for 600 AD,
14-percent voted for 200 BC, 39-percent voted for 2,000 BC,
and 43-percent voted for 3,000 BC.
Wow, you guys are really good.
So let's go to the next slide here.
And you're all right,
but probably the best answer would be number four,
3,000 BC, 5,000 years ago backgammon originated in Iraq,
probably then more commonly called Mesopotamia.
But we also find an old game called
Senet in burials of Egypt.
But you can see that chess goes back 1,500 years.
Snakes and Ladders originated in Ancient India in 200 BC,
and in 2,000 BC Go originated in China,
and there's a lot of discussion about when exactly it appeared.
But gaming goes back a long time ago,
and I think if people really started
looking at archeological sites
we would find games going back even farther.
People find games useful in as competitions,
as a way to engage family members,
or even our rivals in games of skill.
And these games can be something as simple as a dice game,
a game with beans or small markers,
but it also can be games of chance and games of skill,
like the Olympic Games, for example.
We're going to talk more about the kinds of games
that you can bring into a classroom.
So obviously, you know, games have been around for a long time
and a lot of you have played a lot of these games.
Thedictionary.com defines games
as "A competitive activity involving skill, chance,
or endurance on the part of two or more persons
who are playing according to a set of rules,
and the set of rules is important.
And it's for their own amusement or for that of spectators."
And we're adding a component today
in that we're going to be using games for learning.
And some of you may have seen
one of the first educational games
that popped up into the classroom world in the 1970s.
The Oregon Trail was originally designed to teach children
about the realities of 19th Century pioneer life
on the Oregon Trail.
The player would assume the role of a wagon leader,
guiding his party of settlers from Independence,
Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley
over the Oregon Trail on a Conestoga wagon.
The game's been around for since the '70s,
and I think there's a version available yet now.
But this was one of the early educational games
that allowed people to kind of go back into a place of history
and learn about the challenges of going from one place
to another without modern transportation
or communication with limited supplies
and all kinds of pitfalls along the way.
So games have evolved quite a bit since then.
And today I'm not going to talk about the videogames
that are more done outside of school,
the first-person shooter games, some of the builder games.
I'm not going to talk very much about Minecraft,
although I know it's very popular
and it does have classroom applications.
But we're going to talk about more of the gaming
and game design angle of it.
Professor Gee was a very early proponent
of using games for engagement.
And he wrote a book called What Videogames Have to Teach Us
About Learning and Literacy in 2003.
And as I said, he was one of the early researchers
that argued that good videogames are designed to enhance learning
through learning principles supported by research.
And there's been more and more research about gaming
and even use of video gaming in the classroom since then.
And it was pretty hard to find research in the late 2000s,
but now there's evidence that places videogames
within some literacy and shows us how they can help
to bring kids along collectively into the learning sphere.
What we do know is that today's students are multitaskers;
they're using technology constantly:
instant messaging, their phones or e-mail,
Instagram, Facebook, digital music devices,
and they're spending more time with this digital media
than they are watching TV.
And yet these same students who are so thoroughly
connected to technology outside of school
are largely disconnected inside of school.
And so they express frustration in different surveys
that they are dissatisfied with their school experience
and that they have limited access to the Internet
that they have when they go home.
The skills that make gamers successful often help them
be more sociable and develop
strategic thinking and leadership skills.
And so sometimes I think we discount videogames
because they have had a bad rap in the gaming world
with the first-person shooter
and some of the violence in typical videogames
played outside of school,
but there are some games that do have some redeeming qualities.
And with increased use of serious games
we can incorporate some interactive features
that enhance their problem-solving skills
and can also learn more of their core academics along the way.
Properly designed videogames
have the potential to improve student motivation
as well as their educational outcomes.
And they also facilitate the transfer of learned skills
to a practical application. Many videogames or other games
show students how knowledge is used in the real world.
But I think teachers need to be comfortable with playing games,
not only themselves, but also helping their students
be comfortable playing games in the classroom,
because this is kind of new for some of them.
Technology can level the playing field in the classroom
and give students of all economic backgrounds
an opportunity to learn.
It also, as this quote says from Edutopia –
this is an organization founded by the George Lucas Foundation
and they have a lot of information on Edutopia
about game-based learning.
But this could really break up a dull routine
and infuse some energy
and get some student interest around different topics.
And what we're going to talk about today
are more of the Earth science topics.
This was a study – some studies done,
and I've been collecting some of this game-based research
along the way over the last ten years.
Teachers who use games more often report greater improvement
in their students' core supplemental skills.
A study that I just read this week
with some first-graders
showed significant concept acquisition with games,
and these were learning games.
And what has also been found is educational games
may help place students in a frame of mind
that's conducive to learning
and improve their critical thinking reading skills.
And I did not put this quote on here,
but there was a study in which young boys
who have trouble with reading were put in front of videogames
and they can read at higher levels on videogames
than they can in the classroom. So when they have a motivation
to learn they're really trying hard.
And the other thing I've already mentioned is game-based
learning in the classroom can encourage students
to understand subject matter in context,
give them some applications for what they're learning.
So the Joan Ganz Cooney Center has done a lot of work
in understanding the benefits of gaming,
and I took some of these quotes from there.
And I love the first one, "Games are not like vegetables.
Don't imagine as if they're packed
with vitamins and nutrients
that helps kids grow into healthy adults.
Like all forms of media,
it depends on the particular game
and how they are used."
So I think in the early days
we put all videogames in a big box
and said they were evil or they were encouraging violence.
I think we now have to take a very close look at them,
what is their purpose, what's the objective,
what kinds of content are students learning along the way.
And if it's videogame or not,
make choices based on some criteria.
Videogames have been shown to contribute to neural plasticity
because they provide many complex motor
and cognitive demands.
And so when we talk about game-based learning
we're going to be talking not only about videogames,
but also the traditional non-electronic games,
the board games, the card games, the role-playing games.
And they'll get there as well; it's just that you don't have
to develop the videogame to go with it.
So what are the implications for educators?
Well, we do know that many of the games
that we'll talk about require analytical problem-solving,
they encourage critical thinking skills,
in many cases they encourage students to think and cooperate
with other students to reach a good conclusion.
More young teachers now are recognizing the value
of incorporating interactive teachers into learning,
because they grew up playing games.
Games can help teach concepts that have been hard
to teach and difficult for students to learn,
and this is especially true in some of the sciences.
And we'll talk about some of that.
And properly designed games have the potential
to improve student motivation as well as educational outcomes.
So I'm hoping that teachers will include
some gaming innovations in teaching and perhaps think
about redesigning some instructional practices
and some learning environments
to take advantage of the benefits of gaming.
And I'm going to try to give you some helpful hints today
about if you're tentative about getting started,
and I'll give you some simple tools to get started.
If you are already into the gaming
perhaps I'll give you some new ideas to try out.
And with the bottom line that we get students
to use higher order of thinking skills,
that they will tackle some complex problems,
and interact critically through some language and media,
that they will create some problems –
or you will create some problems and they will investigate
through some self-directed exploration.
We hope that you will help them to use data
to understand how they're learning,
how they're constructing games in some cases,
and what they need to work on.
And finally to create in students
a compelling need to know,
a need to ask, examine, assimilate,
and master some schools and content areas
because of a challenge that you have given them.
So this was an interesting piece of information
that has just come up in the last few years,
and that is e-sports.
Gaming for competition is a growing area of skills
that takes its hints from competitive sports.
There are 81 colleges
now in the National Association of Collegiate e-Sports
in which students play various videogames
and then they are eligible
for millions of dollars of scholarships.
So this is an area that is just growing,
so that's one of the reasons why educational gaming
is an easy sell for students.
So where do you start?
Well, I would start, if you're not already doing it,
roll out some simple game play in the classroom
and you can start with simple things like card games,
board games, or the fish bowl.
I mention the card games, there's a lot.
If you just Google "Science card games"
you'll find a whole bunch of games
in different areas of science.
They're also good for math and for reading, of course.
How many of have used flash cards in the past?
But they make a game out of it,
which makes it one level more interesting.
Many, many, many board games out there.
And the fish bowl is if you have, for example,
if you say you have one copy of the EcoChains:
Arctic Crisis board game and you ask a pair
or a small group of students to play it,
and all the other students form a circle around
and watch the people play, so that they watch the play,
but they also understand more the rules of the game
and what happens when, for example,
player one puts down an iceberg and player two has a polar bear,
and what happens, what are the interactions that are going on
and how could you –
once the game is done how could you play it differently?
The fish bowl technique is used when there's limited resources,
but everybody can still watch the play and respond
to questions that the educator would have about the game play
and about the points of the game and conclusions
that can be made after the game is finished.
So that's one strategy that you could use.
You could try some games that are online.
There are a bunch of games at games.noaa.gov.
This was a website that was created to provide
environmental games to students of all ages
that have been scientifically verified
and are a safe place for parents to send their young children.
And you'll see there we've highlighted
the Young Meteorologist Program, which is a game that was created
with the National Weather Service.
And we also have a couple of games there
from the Water Life series, one of them is Rivers
Meet the Sea, about a sea turtle,
based on an estuary in the Western United States,
on the California Coast.
And the other one is called Water Life: Quest to Nest.
It was done with the sea turtle experts at NOAA.
And both games are online and free to use.
They are Flash-based.
But this website also has a number of other games
from other agencies,
like the EPA, like the Forest Service,
like the Fish & Wildlife Service, like PBS Kids.
And so it's a place to go as a clearinghouse for games.
I also want to mention that in the Water Life game,
the sea turtles and the Quest to Nest,
it's a game that can be played and you can come back to,
so it's useful in the classroom;
the students can save their place and come back.
And one interesting part about that sea turtle
and the Quest to Nest, there are lots of teacher helps,
and in this case here were digital projects.
So if you wanted to get started in gaming
you could have the students play Quest to Nest and then show them
the digital storytelling options in the website,
and there you will find opportunities for students
to create some new stories, to show what they have learned.
There are poster ideas, there are announcements.
The media has a gallery of images,
so students could actually create a game with the images
that were provided that came from the game itself.
So there would be some really cool digital projects
as a follow up to the game
and to learn more about the challenges
that sea turtles face,
both on the water and in land when they're trying to nest.
We also posted a new game last year called
Beat the Uncertainty.
This is a coastal resilience simulation game.
It is fun because it becomes very competitive
between teams of teachers, teachers, or students, or adults
who use this game to try to keep their city from flooding.
And the idea is that you have to make good decisions
about your coastal development.
And then based on your decisions and the roll of the dice,
your city will survive
for longer than someone else's city.
And it becomes very competitive, but it's a very powerful
learning game in that students or players
can learn about the good and the bad strategies
for protecting coastlines from sea level rise.
And so the best learning
goes when players make their first choices,
play the game, roll the dice,
they have all kind of weather problems
that hammer the coast and their city
may or may not survive very well.
So then you get to do round two,
in which you get to choose gain now,
based on what you learned,
what new protections will you put in your city.
Is it green coastlines? Is it soft coastlines?
Is it plant more mangroves?
Is it protecting your water supply?
What are you going to do the second round?
And you could even play a third round
so that students and adults
who have played this game can get an idea
about what kinds of strategies work in helping communities
become more resilient to sea level rise.
All the materials are at games.noaa.gov.
There's teacher instructions, there's the checklist,
there's how to make – you know,
what you should do to make the little cities and the boats,
and it's great simulation.
Also wanted to call your attention to someplace
where you'll find some Earth science games
that are ready to go, at BrainPop.
They have been very prolific
in the development of games over the years
and they are very highly regarded.
I also wanted to give a plug to Randy Russell,
who is on our phone call today, and he's going to talk about
STEM games and simulations tomorrow.
And I hope you will tune in for that
because it's a whole lot of really great Earth science games
that he and others have developed,
and I think you will find it a great application
of what we're talking about today.
And here are some more resources that you might think about.
I told you about Edutopia
being very much into game-based learning.
PBSKids has some great stuff for free.
I mentioned Minecraft;
I'm not going to talk about Minecraft a lot,
but there's a huge educational community
who are having students create their own 3-D virtual worlds,
and it's being widely used in education.
If you have students that are using this
you might check out the education.minecraft.net space
for some helpful hints in getting started there.
Call out NASA's spaceplace has some great little games.
And the Invention Playground from the United States Patent
and Trade Office has some stuff for preschool students
if you have very young students
and having them create some ideas.
But that's for playing what's already out there.
Let's talk about maybe game design.
So if you're comfortable with playing games in the classroom,
maybe you want to take the next step and go into game design.
And here are some simple tools of the trade:
paper, all kinds of sizes; index cards;
note paper; large paper; lots of little bits,
you know, dice, game pieces, dominos, styluses;
and of course, markers for them to create their own game board
or their cards.
And getting started in game design
is pretty daunting for a lot of teachers,
so Scholastic has a nice little website
with some game-making lesson plans.
And you might choose to use a couple of these lesson plans.
If you want to use their tools
I believe there is a subscription fee,
but you can use their game-making lesson plans.
And there are some there from beginner to intermediates
and there are some from intermediates to advanced.
I have used the laws of the jungle in webinars
or workshops before, and it's just –
you can do that in 30 minutes with adults,
but I would give more time for students in creating a game
based on environment in a biome
that they choose with predators and prey that they choose.
It's a quick way of having students
think about who are your players,
what are the rules, what's your objective,
what do you hope people will get after they play your game.
And it's a good place to start.
Again, BrainPop has some game-making and design tools.
And the key here is to give them a topic
that they're wanting to dig into.
So don't just open it up and say,
"We're going to make games today."
I would say, "We're going to make games today
about the history of the geology of our school ground"
and have them do some digging into, okay,
what happened here, who are the players,
what are we – you know, what happened in the past,
is there some interesting geology that happened here,
or what kinds of landforms have been common in this area,
how did they form,
are there some people that lived here during that time,
would they have some challenges with it?
You should make the game design task fairly specific
so that they will dig into the content
that you're interested in having them dig in.
Again, these are some of the game ideas.
Once you give them a topic
that you want them to create a game around,
here are some of the things that you might think.
If they're digital oriented students, Gamestar Mechanic,
Scratch, GameSalad, Tinker, and Game Maker,
those things would be good for students to create games.
This is the page of Gamestar Mechanic.
A lot of these tools you can use for free as an educator.
In this case there are three games
there that students created.
One of them was on the water cycle,
one was on the Lewis & Clark expedition,
and another was a treasure hunt graphing game.
And there's a lot of other samples on there.
So the bottom line, though, is that
–and this should be emphasized to the students,
a successful game should be fun to play,
it should have clear objectives,
and provide opportunities for a player to win.
If it has those components, has a clear set of rules,
who are the players, what are they after,
how do you win;
those kinds of things will help students
create a design that's good.
One task that we challenge teachers to do
if they're doing game design in the classroom
is to offer students the opportunity
to play-test each others' games
and then to have them vote for peoples' choice,
which game do you think was most successful in being fun to play,
having clear objectives, and being able to win?
And the students appreciate having the feedback,
but they also love the competition.
So the other opportunity is to join a game jam,
and you can create one in your own classroom.
We had a series of game jams starting in 2015,
and in this case we were focusing on climate content.
A game jam is typically done in about a 48-hour time period,
but in the classroom that's hard to do,
because 48 hours is usually done over a weekend,
and most students and teachers
don't want to be at school on the weekend;
they've already spent a week with each other in school.
But the game jam idea
grew into being more than just a weekend thing.
The first game jam we had about 11 sites
and we had almost 30 games produced
in a 48-hour time period. And the idea was
that the students could produce a paper prototype or a game,
card game, board game, or digital videogame,
but they had to produce a two-minute video
that told us about their game
and explained the game mechanics,
so what was the point of it,
how do you win, what are the rules,
and what were the game objectives.
And so we had participants of all age levels,
but we did have different categories of games
and we had different age categories as well,
so that adults who were more prolific at producing videogames
weren't competing against elementary students
who were just there making little scratch games.
But the idea of a game jam
is that everybody's got the common theme,
everybody has the same constraints,
and you just create this game from beginning to end.
It's not a finished game, but it is a game idea
that's created over a certain time period.
What this allowed the students to do during this
was to really dig into climate science.
And we had climate experts available for them
to talk to to answer questions.
We also had some game experts from Glass Labs, for example,
to answer questions about game design.
You would not have to have that kind of thing
if you were just doing this in your classroom.
We did have different categories of games.
So let's say you wanted to have a category
in which students get like a game of Monopoly,
and their challenge is to create a Monopoly-like game
with a new science topic.
So that is a hack this game category;
you use an existing game,
but it's modified so that it covers topics in a new way.
A paper prototype might become a digital game in the future,
so it has some paper representation
and it's usually on a big piece of poster paper,
so it's not going to have any actual programming,
but it does explain what's happening with the game.
And it has to be designed from scratch during the game jam,
so it can't be produced outside of class.
The analog game is board games, card games,
role-playing games that are, again,
designed during scratch during the game jam,
but you can play it at the end of the event.
And it might be modified later, but at least you can play
a form of the game at the end of the adult.
Our basic digital game is going to use some simple tools
like Scratch, Gamestar Mechanic, or GameSalad.
You can also have advanced digital games
that include things like Unity and Java and GameMaker,
but these would be a little rough to finish.
They might be able to play in a prototype form.
But the idea is that you put students –
allow students to have different categories of games.
Or if you want to, you can limit the categories, say,
"Okay, today, guys, we're all making analog games.
Nobody's making digital games."
Or you can give them a couple of options,
depending on your comfort level with game-making.
So I also wanted to provide to you a sample scoring rubric
that you could use for game design thought
and giving some feedback to the students
or to score the students.
We used this to score the last game jam we had,
which was based on you're a limited content
in terms of Arctic,
what's going on in the Arctic with climate.
And so this rubric was helpful to the judges
to determine who were the winners of that game jam,
but also it might be useful to you
in helping give some feedback
to game designers in your classroom.
So we had some positive results.
Barnard College did a jam site evaluation
with the people that came to their site
and I thought it was very telling
that the students who were there increased their information
about climate change before and after;
66-percent before the game were somewhat very informed
about climate change, but 93-percent afterwards.
I think it's a remarkable increase in content knowledge.
And then how well informed were they about how we can respond
to the impacts of climate change,
again, there was pretty good knowledge before,
but it went up significantly.
And they became much more interested in climate change
as an issue.
And so I think this is one of the biggest positive results
of game-making in the classroom,
the students dig into the content very deeply,
they learn a lot about it in a short amount of time,
because they really have a purpose to learn.
And then when they're done they care about the content
because they created a game about it.
So if you're going to plan a local event
I would start way early.
If you're going to do it in a region, for example
– if you're doing it in your classroom
of course you can do this
whenever and make it as short or as long as you'd like.
If you're going to do a local event, though,
it would be probably fun
to involve some local game development folks
or even some folks who are in the gaming community.
You probably have a local video store
that might have some people
who are very interested in game development
and they probably would be very helpful to you.
If you're going to do it outside of your classroom,
of course you'd have to have a target age range
and determine who you wanted to invite to your game jam.
We had a teacher in Florida
did a game jam in her classroom over a week's time.
We allowed teachers to have much more latitude
in designing their game jam time periods
because of the classroom situation
and they limited the number of students who could come
and do the game design, but they were very, very –
the other students were very interested in doing this.
We had pre-event Google Hangouts and webinars and we also –
you need to be cognizant if you have students
under 13 that, you know, if teachers or parents,
if you're going to be announcing
this or doing anything with the external audiences,
teachers and parents must be the point of contact.
So I just want to show you some other tools
that you might think about using.
Bruce, I think I skipped right over poll number two.
Let's go back to that.
Absolutely, Peg. We can do that.
Okay, so we're going to have our second poll.
Take a moment to answer this directly on your screen.
Okay, it looks like about half of folks have voted.
Give it just another few seconds.
Okay, I'm going to call it.
So let's see if it will work this time.
Peg, can you see the results this time?
No.
What a shame.
All right, so it looks like 23-percent of respondents
use games often in their programs or classes,
once a week or more.
32-percent use them once in a while, about monthly.
18-percent use them a few times a year,
and 27-percent use them very infrequently, so less than that.
Okay. Well, that's good. That's really not atypical.
And I'm glad so many people are using them at least once a week.
I think that was really great.
Let's talk about some potential Earth science content
that you might consider to bring into your classroom.
So if I was going to say, you know,
"Students, next week we're going to design a game."
You might pick any of these topics for them to discuss,
and it probably would be a topic if I was teaching,
yet it would be a topic that's already in my curriculum.
I might set aside a day or two for them to design a game
and then play test it with their colleagues.
And I think it would be interesting for you
to incorporate these kinds of strategies in your classroom,
because the students will be very eager to learn about stuff
that they might not be so eager to learn about.
You know, games that involve
things like plate tectonics and earthquakes
and how to use resources and recycling and pollution,
protecting our water resources;
these items would be very easy to have games developed,
and I would leave it wide open.
You don't have to be very specific,
but you might want to consider giving your students
some good sources of information,
either in books or online or suggested websites.
You might suggest, you know,
give them a list of ten resources
that they should incorporate into their games,
and the first thing they do is to figure out what's the content
and then they can decide who were the players
and what's the overall goal of the game,
what are the rules of the game, and then ask them to play it.
And sometimes you learn a lot more
about the mechanics of the game by playing it,
and then they realize by playing it something works
or something doesn't work as well as they thought,
and so they have to go back and rewrite the rules a little bit.
But give them a couple of days and even if you make this
an out-of-school assignment I think it would be very doable.
Have them work in small groups;
that seems to work well unless you're doing videogames,
and then you'd probably want to do it individually
or with just a pair of students.
But I think all of this Earth science content
lends itself very well for producing board games,
card games, and even digital games.
Bruce, I think we'll pause and see if there's any questions.
Very good.
So if anybody has any questions that they'd like to ask Peg,
please take a moment to type them into your question box
on the right-hand side of your control panel.
I don't see any specific questions at this time, Peg.
But hopefully some folks will think of them at the end.
Why don't we move along?
Okay. All right. Let's keep going.
Just make sure I've got the right slide here.
There seems to be a lag in my computer.
So at the end of the day prizes are important.
Students want to get recognition,
even if they win the People's Choice Award,
they want to be recognized.
And we were lucky enough to work in the First National Climate
Game Jam with the White House,
who really helped give us some visibility.
But the other game jams were announced as well,
and many people took to heart the fact that their hard work
was recognized by a national game jam group.
If you have an organization that is sponsoring a game jam,
of course that recognition is important
for the students and the teachers.
And in many cases we were able to provide
some small crystal globe trophies to the students.
And you'll see them pictured there.
Those are just very simple three-inch-high crystal globes
that are easily obtained online for,
you know, not very much money. But the students thought
that they had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
They were very serious about winning something
for their creation and being recognized for that.
In fact, many of those little crystal globes
ended up in the athletic department trophy case
because they were so proud of them.
So don't underestimate a few dollars for a game prize,
because in many cases the students that are winning
and doing really well at some of these game jams
and even the game design in your own classroom
are not the typical,
you know, students who do well in other academic areas.
These are students who, you know,
they probably have a wealth of experience
in games outside of school
and they have some talents that are not easily recognized
in the typical academic scheme of things.
And so the students that get these awards
aren't typically the ones you would think of,
and so I would really suggest, you know, try this out
and make sure that you give plenty of recognition.
If you want to try a mini game jam at your school
sometime here's what I might suggest you do.
In 45 minutes, which is about a class time period,
have them design a short game about –
and you fill in the topic.
And then have them build a little paper prototype.
Give them a big piece of paper, a bunch of markers, crayons,
and have them think about these five things:
who are the main characters? What's the storyline?
What's the goal? How do you play it?
And how do you make the game fun?
And then everybody shares and posts it around the room.
And if there are some games that you think the students
would like to develop further
I would give them a chance to do that
and I think they would love it.
The other thing that's pretty hot right now
is to try a breakout in your classroom.
And this is really a growing movement in the teacher world,
where players solve a series of problems
and riddles to unlock clues.
In many cases you've heard of breakout rooms that are,
you know, escape rooms,
and the teachers, as creative as they always are,
are now doing this in their classrooms.
And it can be digital or physical.
The ones that are escape rooms in the cities around the world
are physical, but they can be digital.
And so one teacher used Google Forms
to create a lockbox of activities
and then the students can't move
until they get an answer correct,
and then the correct answer leads them to more clues.
And so there's a number of resources
that were highlighted
in the February issue of NSTA Reports.
And I love the names of some of these breakout rooms.
But you can see that these might be really fun for your students
to develop on their own
or for you to develop for your students to play.
I especially like the one that's called "Stuck in the '80s"
[laughs] with a time capsule.
So here are some breakout resources
that you might consider using,
including the National Park Adventure Tour.
And you'll have access to all these slides so that
if you want to go back and check out these links
you can certainly do that.
So thinking outside the box since 3,000 BC,
I love this little mouse,
because I think it brings together all the creativity
and the thoughtfulness and problem-solving
that I think games can bring to the classroom.
And before we end, Bruce,
I think you have one more poll question.
Yes, that's right. Let me call it up right now.
Okay, again, we'll just take about a minute or so.
And we do have some questions here, Peg.
All right.
And folks, we can answer that after we finish this poll.
And if folks have any additional questions
that they are thinking of, please type them in.
Okay, well, it looks like
we've got just about most of the people voting.
So about 4-percent said they were most likely to use
commercially-produced card or board games.
No one was going to be using
commercially-produced videogames.
And it's evenly split 48-percent to 48-percent free games
from a trusted source and games that the educators
or the students produce themselves.
Awesome. That's great. Well, thank you, everyone.
I think that students are very creative, obviously.
And when they've been given a purpose, you know,
educational games are games with purpose,
and these games, when they're created
or designed around content area that you want them to focus on,
now you're the driver of the game,
but the students are the ones
that are helping to design the experience,
and I think it's a very powerful partnership.
So thank you all for that. I think….
Indeed. Ah, yes.
Yes, I want to end with this, that Malcolm Bauer said
"People play everywhere except I school."
And I am hoping that the trend continues to play more
and more games in the classroom.
I think sometimes we have to do a better job of explaining
why we're using games to the administration
and to the parents, that games are a powerful tool
and we need all the tools
that we can bring to bear to help students learn.
And if games work, I think we should use them.
But sometimes it takes a little bit of education
in order to make sure that people understand
why we're doing what we're doing.
And if I can ever help any of you please let me know.
I am not at NOAA anymore, but I am Peg.Steffen@gmail.com.
And if I can ever provide any information
or research background
for you to help you get games going in the classroom
or get a game jam started, please let me know.