1. IDEA » You make me sick! Online game teaches science to middle schoolers http://www.idea.org/blog/2011/04/07/you-make-me-sick-online-game-tea...
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“This is your target” the game says, pointing at an ordinary looking Three examples of multidisciplinary
cartoon woman in a T-shirt and track pants. “If you pay close outreach to H.S. students
attention to the host’s weaknesses, you can make a disease that will 12-Nov-2012 | Business, Learning & access
get the host super duper sick!” What is a dictionary? And how are they
changing?
The premise of the “You Make Me Sick!” online game, which won a 5-Nov-2012 | Business
$50k prize last week from the National STEM Video Game Challenge, is that middle school kids Sell books with Amazon Fulfillment
invent an pathogen and fight the immune system — learning science along the way. The game Services, tutorial
steps players through several stages: briefing them on the habits and weaknesses of a target 29-Oct-2012 | Communication, Strategy
human, devising an evil pathogen (e.g., a virus or bacterium with different transmission means, 30 popular Twitter #hashtags for
shapes and characteristics), and playing a short arcade game in the lungs or guts of the human education and outreach
— battling the pathogen against immune cells. 25-Oct-2012 | Interactive experiences,
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About the game Great tools for data visualization
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The charming game hopes to engage kids in the Open Access Week 2012
process of infection, and familiarize them with 23-Oct-2012 | Interactive experiences
attributes of pathogens and how infections Five kinds of games to engage visitors
occur. in history exhibits
The game is designed so that kids who don’t like OLDER ARTICLES
to read or have trouble deciphering text can
learn some microbiology. Dr. Matthew Marino, ABOUT IDEA
an assistant professor of special education IDEA's blog promotes the role of technology
at Washington State University worked on the in advancing scientific & cultural literacy.
education aspects of the game. Since learning We discuss new ways to innovate with
abilities are a continuum, Marino says, “Our business and interactive experiences. We
encourage your participation
hypothesis is that if you build a game that
addresses the unique challenges students with ABOUT IDEA
disabilities face, all students will benefit because
the design will account for the wide range of
diversity that is present in every class.”
The game fits typical curriculum standards of middle school (ages 11-14) science classrooms,
and is intended to “motivate, engage, and teach a diverse range of students about science.” It’s
online, running in web browsers with Adobe Flash version 10, and works on virtually all web
browsers in the U.S. The game play itself is a little confusing and the arcade functions are
cumbersome, but the overall design successfully draws gamers through, to experience the
interplay between the pathogen and the host’s immune system.
The business model
The game is currently free, though the publisher, Madison, Wisc. based Filament Games, plans
to bundle a suite of middle school science games spanning life, Earth, and physical science,
and put them behind an “affordable” paywall.
The primary source of funding is from the U.S. Department of Education, via their Institute of
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2. IDEA » You make me sick! Online game teaches science to middle schoolers http://www.idea.org/blog/2011/04/07/you-make-me-sick-online-game-tea...
Education Sciences’ Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The SBIR program
funds commercial ventures that “directly or indirectly lead to improved student learning and
academic achievement” but which can’t self-fund because they require too much research or
the revenue potential is too small. The contract was awarded to Filament, for $838k. They have
2.5 years to make “six life science computer games on topics including cells, heredity,
evolution, bacteria, plants, and the human body.” Filament was also awarded a $150k SBIR from
NSF to make games targeting the physical sciences.
Still, it’s a labor of love. The SBIR contracts don’t fully compensate for the team’s time. Marino
says, “the project is taking a great deal of time and energy. I stopped keeping track of the hours.
It was depressing but we’re doing it for the students and that is our reward.”
Video game prize
The game leapt to notoriety because it won $50k in a science video game competition last
week. The prize was organized by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and publisher E-Line Media,
riding on publicity from President Obama’s ”Educate to Innovate” campaign. One part of the
prize challenged middle-school students to design video games on any topic (some of which
dealt with science themes). Brian Alspach, vice president of E-Line Media is excited about kids
doing game development, saying “we believe that the very act of designing a game has
powerful implications for STEM learning.” The second part of the prize challenged emerging
and experienced game developers like Filament.
The prize organizers had the support of the White House, which promoted the contest on their
blog, as well as several nonprofits who promoted the contest via their existing channels. Thanks
to that free publicity, the youth prize had 525 entries from imaginative kids (see the youth
winners); and 50 entries from emerging and experienced game developers. Last week, Aneesh
Chopra, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, announced a dozen youth winners, and two
developer winners.
For Filament, the $50k was an unexpected windfall. Their SBIR contract was awarded in July
2010, two months before the challenge was announced, so they had started development
already. Filament submitted their web-based game on a whim, since it did not fully comply
with the rules of 4-person teams creating mobile-based video games for young children,
grades pre-K through 4th. (Filament’s game is not mobile, targets older children, and had a
4-person development team plus several others who chipped in with planning, design, artwork
and the soundtrack.) But it turned out that the contest rules were flexible, and contest officials
loved the game.
The competition was funded by sponsors (AMD Foundation, ESA and Microsoft): $50k for
Filament, $50k to a team of graduate students, plus a dozen laptop computers to the youth
winners and $24k for schools.
Games for learning
The success of the approach for this game is still unknown. The series of games are designed
around the Universal Design For Learning (UDL) framework, which the team hopes will help
meet the needs of all students. But Marino says, “the teaching methods within the game need
additional empirical research.” “There is very little research about how to transfer empirically
validated strategies from the classroom into a game.” They will test the games by comparing
learning outcomes among kids that play the game vs. kids that are taught via conventional
means.
Meanwhile, Marino and Filament are continuing with the game pipeline. Their next game,
“Prisoner of Echo” is about sound, and comes out next month.
Check out the “You Make Me Sick!” online game yourself!
Update 7-Apr-11: Clarified details about Filament’s contest submission; corrected SBIR contract
details.
8
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3. IDEA » You make me sick! Online game teaches science to middle schoolers http://www.idea.org/blog/2011/04/07/you-make-me-sick-online-game-tea...
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IDEA » Science game contest awarded $50k prize to ineligible candidate
[...] story came to my attention last week, when I wrote a blog post about a cool online
science game for Middle School kids which won the grand prize as part of the contest run
by the Joan Ganz [...]
gametic114 · 68 weeks ago 0
The kids will be aware of how does bacteria affect their health and they will learn new
things. a combined idea of entertainment and education. This are great innovation for
online games , Not just a game also learning...Keep up the good work !!
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