Blog Archives

How to design a Serious Game.

NanoCrasherVR Music and Art

Protein Art  We have recruited an expert structural biologist to our project!  Martina Maritan, Ph.D. is a structural biologist, which means she studied the shape of proteins, and in particular, she used X-Rays the same way Rosalind Franklin did.  Now she is a postdoc in the Molecular Graphics Lab,

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Posted in Game Design and Development
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Video Games in Class; A Professional Development Course-Part Two

Game Design Document Outline

Part Two:  Integrating the design of a game into your lessons/Using video game design to get your students to interact and learn great amounts from a local scientist.

1.  Choose a topic you wish to address. 

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Posted in Education and Evaluation
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STEM Video Game Challenge and Teaching Youngsters to Program

Hi.  Do you have a kid at home who is 8?  Or are you a kid who is 8?  Perhaps you are a kid who is 14, or 34.   What would you like to do when you grow up?  Would you like to help the environment, work for major league baseball,

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Posted in Uncategorized
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Upcoming Event: What Can a Video Game Teach?

Melanie Stegman, yours truly, will be presenting her research on Immune Attack, development of the sequal and all about using game to teach and learn.  April 23, 6PM.  At the FabLab on North Capitol at P.  If you have made a game, bring it with you! 

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Posted in Chemistry
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Students at Shadow Mountain High School, Phoenix, AZ Recommend Immune Attack

Wonder whether your students will like Immune Attack? Wonder whether it is game enough to hold their attention? Well watch this video.

And oh, if you work for a AAA video game company you can reach me by email!

Thank you to Debbie Kovesdy, her students and the biology teachers who participated in our evaluation.

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Posted in Biology, Chemistry
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Serious Game Design: Theme is not Meaning

If you want to design a game that teaches something, first define carefully what that thing is.  Second, design your game to require the player to learn that thing in order to win your game.  This concept is very important for Serious Game designers, but it is also very important for every game designer.

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Posted in Uncategorized
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Making science video games: Spore and the misrepresentation of science.

A friend said to me,
“I am trying to make a video game to create interest in engineering.  Someone told me Spore taught a lot about evolution.  What do you think?”

I did play Spore and I was very disappointed.  I was angry, actually, because the things that are so cool about evolution were not present. 

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Posted in Biology, Chemistry
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Exercise while gaming!

Paul Ballas, OD, of our own Science Advisory Group, wrote an excellent opinion piece for Wired.

Paul thinks that video games that require us to be more active might help us actually become more active.  People exercise more when they can do something fun for exercise,

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Posted in Uncategorized
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Interpersonal skills learned in a video game?

I believe that video games have the power to teach us many things.
Math (See Lure of the Labyrinth, and DimensionM)
Biology (MedMyst, CSI: The Experience, Cellcraft and Immune Attack)
Ancient History (Discover Babylon)
And the many games that teach social awareness and facts about current events at Games for Change.

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Posted in Uncategorized
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Cellcraft puts you in the driver seat of a cell

So, how do cells avoid viruses? If you wonder, try playing the game CellCraft.  It is a terrific game for middle school students or anyone.   Check it out, give the Cellcraft team some props on their forum, and then tell me what you like about the game.

cellcraftgame.com

www.kongregate.com Play Cellcraft here!

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Posted in Biology, Chemistry
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