Laura My favorite educational game that I played today was a scrabble game. I like the sort of games that have to do with mind puzzles. I think this would be a good game for elementary children through adult, It helps with spelling and also gives definitions for clues to unscramble the words.
Gil Science pirates was my favorite. Would best work for elementary (4/5 grade) and middle school students. The looking for clues and answering of problems makes them think to solve the mystery of the pirate. At times it got frustrating in the area of Squid Queen and shooting her down but my competitive nature wanted to conquer the queen. It made me have patients to conquer and move on to the next level. The quick math games were neat because I like math.
NICOLE My favorite game today was science pirates just because there was several ways you could go with it and several levels to complete. I liked it because it was not boring there was always something next.I think can be good for kids like middle school if not younger or older. this is the age where they do pick up a lot of germs and need to take the time to wash their hands so they dont spread germs.
Kerry My favorite game from today was the monkey smoothie game in Science Pirates. I liked it because it is a logic puzzle game which is one of my favorite types of games.
The Pearl Diver game was the most successful at teaching a concept.
My least favorite game was NASA's Wild Weather Adventure game. I enjoyed answering the questions, but the computer was able to win the game by spinning higher numbers even though it answered most of the questions incorrectly. That is very unsatisfying.
All of the games were suitable for a middle school audience. However, I doubt that many kids would find/seek these games out on their own. It would be cool if games were compiled in sites and offered embed codes like video currently does.
Dawn I liked Science Pirates the best because of the graphics and having to go on a treasure hunt with different games to play. It was a little long but gives you a sense of accomplishment along with learning about some basic science concepts. It really had to make you think, use strategy, and critical thinking instead of just pushing buttons which I tend to do at times. I think it would work best for possible late elementary or early middle school students because it would be a good exposure to certain concepts which are the building blocks of using science. It is good that it reiterates the concepts several times before you move on to the next activity. I have to try it with my 9 year old daughter who loves science but hasn't been exposeded to much in school outside of her SEMAA courses.
Celsa My favorite education game to play today was the Brownbeard Science Pirate game. It was educational and engaging. The initial directions were a bit confusing at first, but I was redirected and was able to follow along and feel successful. I think elementary level children and middle school (4-7) would probably do well. It involves the feel of playing a video game with the 3D rotation of the screen, which I feel that middle school age children find appealing, therefore, I feel they'd want to stay involved in playing.
I liked Brownbeard because the puzzles and virtual tasks were integrated into an overall narrative that I thought had legs. My son liked it and played it several times, returning to it to try to do better, and picking up more of the educational content each time.
In general, though, these games are sad substitutes for working with a teacher, or for free play with real objects and equipment that one can learn from. Some of the "games," like "nanosats" are just reading a text and taking a quiz on the content--like an old fashioned correspondence course--the original distance ed modality.
Scale Ella has sound content, of course, but, as a math teacher, I know how dynamic a lesson can be when the examples are taken from the learners and involve real objects--like proportional blocks, sketches on graph paper, etc.
We are taken with the novelty of computer graphics and sound, while forgetting that virtual reality is still only an impoverished form of experience. Educationally, we need to keep in mind that many learners learn best through kinesthetic manipulation of real objects--manipulating virtual representations will not work equally well for all.
The passivity and eyestrain, compared to guided and free play in the open air probably contribute to the health crisis in children (adults too) which was addressed in other games we have looked at.
There is probably a place for computer mediated learning experiences, when the bugs get worked out, but I am coming to think it will be a very small place.
Science Pirates was definitely my fave game, because of the thoughtful, 'cartoony' animation and humor... I liked the colors, the sound effects, the different pirate characters, the funny phrases that they used, and the different challenges that the developers thought of—how to kill bad breath by figuring out the constants vs. the variables, and how the bird would lose it's feathers if the bad breath was still there. Kids, between the ages 7-14, would stay entertained, because of that simple, clean humor, as well as the slight navigational aspect of it. Kids these days play a lot of video games where they walk from location to location talking to different characters, discovering different clues, finding jewels, etc., and this game had that feel to it. In order to find all the map pieces, I had to beat all levels/locations, which meant that I had to figure out which one I hadn't been to yet. I think the repetition also works in Science Pirates, because it keeps going over the various concepts, but slightly changing things, so that you keep learning bits about it.
Laura
ReplyDeleteMy favorite educational game that I played today was a scrabble game. I like the sort of games that have to do with mind puzzles. I think this would be a good game for elementary children through adult, It helps with spelling and also gives definitions for clues to unscramble the words.
Joe Smith
ReplyDeleteMy favorite game today was bureau of steam engineering. It provided instruction, challenge and outcomes.
I especially liked the chat feature that was embedded in the game. It showed how many were in the room and how many were chatting. Nice touch.
Gil
ReplyDeleteScience pirates was my favorite. Would best work for elementary (4/5 grade) and middle school students. The looking for clues and answering of problems makes them think to solve the mystery of the pirate. At times it got frustrating in the area of Squid Queen and shooting her down but my competitive nature wanted to conquer the queen. It made me have patients to conquer and move on to the next level. The quick math games were neat because I like math.
NICOLE
ReplyDeleteMy favorite game today was science pirates just because there was several ways you could go with it and several levels to complete. I liked it because it was not boring there was always something next.I think can be good for kids like middle school if not younger or older. this is the age where they do pick up a lot of germs and need to take the time to wash their hands so they dont spread germs.
Kerry
ReplyDeleteMy favorite game from today was the monkey smoothie game in Science Pirates. I liked it because it is a logic puzzle game which is one of my favorite types of games.
The Pearl Diver game was the most successful at teaching a concept.
My least favorite game was NASA's Wild Weather Adventure game. I enjoyed answering the questions, but the computer was able to win the game by spinning higher numbers even though it answered most of the questions incorrectly. That is very unsatisfying.
All of the games were suitable for a middle school audience. However, I doubt that many kids would find/seek these games out on their own. It would be cool if games were compiled in sites and offered embed codes like video currently does.
Dawn
ReplyDeleteI liked Science Pirates the best because of the graphics and having to go on a treasure hunt with different games to play. It was a little long but gives you a sense of accomplishment along with learning about some basic science concepts. It really had to make you think, use strategy, and critical thinking instead of just pushing buttons which I tend to do at times. I think it would work best for possible late elementary or early middle school students because it would be a good exposure to certain concepts which are the building blocks of using science. It is good that it reiterates the concepts several times before you move on to the next activity. I have to try it with my 9 year old daughter who loves science but hasn't been exposeded to much in school outside of her SEMAA courses.
Celsa
ReplyDeleteMy favorite education game to play today was the Brownbeard Science Pirate game. It was educational and engaging. The initial directions were a bit confusing at first, but I was redirected and was able to follow along and feel successful. I think elementary level children and middle school (4-7) would probably do well. It involves the feel of playing a video game with the 3D rotation of the screen, which I feel that middle school age children find appealing, therefore, I feel they'd want to stay involved in playing.
Stephen DeGiulio
ReplyDeleteI liked Brownbeard because the puzzles and virtual tasks were integrated into an overall narrative that I thought had legs. My son liked it and played it several times, returning to it to try to do better, and picking up more of the educational content each time.
In general, though, these games are sad substitutes for working with a teacher, or for free play with real objects and equipment that one can learn from. Some of the "games," like "nanosats" are just reading a text and taking a quiz on the content--like an old fashioned correspondence course--the original distance ed modality.
Scale Ella has sound content, of course, but, as a math teacher, I know how dynamic a lesson can be when the examples are taken from the learners and involve real objects--like proportional blocks, sketches on graph paper, etc.
We are taken with the novelty of computer graphics and sound, while forgetting that virtual reality is still only an impoverished form of experience. Educationally, we need to keep in mind that many learners learn best through kinesthetic manipulation of real objects--manipulating virtual representations will not work equally well for all.
The passivity and eyestrain, compared to guided and free play in the open air probably contribute to the health crisis in children (adults too) which was addressed in other games we have looked at.
There is probably a place for computer mediated learning experiences, when the bugs get worked out, but I am coming to think it will be a very small place.
Miley G.
ReplyDeleteScience Pirates was definitely my fave game, because of the thoughtful, 'cartoony' animation and humor... I liked the colors, the sound effects, the different pirate characters, the funny phrases that they used, and the different challenges that the developers thought of—how to kill bad breath by figuring out the constants vs. the variables, and how the bird would lose it's feathers if the bad breath was still there. Kids, between the ages 7-14, would stay entertained, because of that simple, clean humor, as well as the slight navigational aspect of it. Kids these days play a lot of video games where they walk from location to location talking to different characters, discovering different clues, finding jewels, etc., and this game had that feel to it. In order to find all the map pieces, I had to beat all levels/locations, which meant that I had to figure out which one I hadn't been to yet. I think the repetition also works in Science Pirates, because it keeps going over the various concepts, but slightly changing things, so that you keep learning bits about it.