On day 1, students complete the following questions/activities.

What do you think – are games useful in education? Why or why not?

Write about an experience when playing a game (computer game, board game, card game, etc.) helped you learn about something.

Now read this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2013/07/01/it-only-takes-about-42-minutes-to-learn-algebra-with-video-games/

Write a 2-3 sentence summary of the article. What is the author’s point about learning algebra with the DragonBox game?

Please spend about five minutes trying out each of these games. Don’t worry about whether you know all the answers – just try out the games. Then answer the two questions below:

• Out of these three, which game do you think is the best teacher? Why?
• What makes a game good for learning?

http://education.jlab.org/elementmatching/index.html

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/periodictable_L.html

http://www.abpischools.org.uk/activescience/module5/game.html

Your challenge: In your group of 4, design a game that teaches one or more of the skills/content standards related to atoms and the periodic table.

BC1 Atoms Unit Standards

After learning standards 1 and 2 (see document above), again after 3 and 4, and then again after standard 5, student groups brainstorm ideas for games that could teach the concepts they just learned. The learning and brainstorming cycles through steps 1-4 of the Game Development Process document below.

Game Development Process

Teachers review content throughout the unit using various game formats, such as Rock-Paper-Scissors-Valence (in which students show on their fingers the correct number of valence electrons for an element) or $100,000 Pyramid with student-generated questions, played in partners.

100000 pyramid review

Students also take individual quizzes on the content standards throughout the unit.

Outside experts – A professional game developer, Shanon Lyon of Department of Recreation, LLC, worked with teachers during the unit planning process and met with students as a guest speaker early in the unit. She guided students through practice with brainstorming ideas and shared what goes into developing a game. http://www.shanonlyon.com/about.html

Culminating experience – After learning all of the content standards, student groups go back to their brainstormed ideas and select their top 2-3 ideas. They then build prototypes (using game pieces from thrift stores, scraps of different materials, etc.) and play test their games in their groups.

After selecting one game idea, students make their final product. They then present their games to students from a higher grade level or a more advanced science class. The guest/”expert” students play and rate the games based on how well they both engage and teach.

The idea of playing games is accessible for students of all cognitive levels and ethnic/language backgrounds, which makes this unit engaging for a wide range of students. The main challenge for students with IEPs or English language learners is the amount of content vocabulary required. Below are two scaffolds developed to help with these challenges.

Atoms-Periodic-Table Vocabulary-BC1-v2

Electron Configuration Worksheet

Here’s what I really enjoy about this unit:

A great thing about this unit is the almost universal experience students have of playing games. No matter where in the world they’re from, and no matter how well they feel they do in school, almost all students have played some sort of game. The freedom they have to design any kind of game they wish for their final product lets them bring in whatever experiences they have. I am always surprised by my students’ creativity about the kinds of games they apply to teaching about atoms and the periodic table.

I also like the use of peer evaluation in the final product. Students have to explain and teach their game to students not in their class, which adds another dimension of teaching to the final performance and requires that all the students understand their game and their content.

Here’s what I’m still working on making better about this unit:

The content is challenging and abstract for some students, and there are stretches of a few days at a time when we are learning content before coming back to brainstorming game ideas for teaching it. We try to insert as many game-type activities into the content learning and review as we can (and explicitly call those out to the students), but I wonder if there’s a way to weave the project into the content even more.

It would also be cool to have the students vote on an outstanding game and get one professionally produced.

So far computer games have been hard to incorporate into the unit, because of the challenge of finding a platform that is compatible with our district internet security settings and doesn’t require students to have in-depth programming knowledge.

Here’s what I really enjoy about this unit:

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Here’s how this unit could help me learn more effectively:

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Here’s how this unit connects really well to my work:

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Here’s where I think there are opportunities for growth:

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Students have to take a concept that is fairly abstract and specific, and use a game to make it engaging for their peers. They engage in the current dialogue about using games for learning by determining what factors make a game both engaging and educational.

Fellow students from a different class play and rate the games. They get feedback from peers of their age about whether this game is fun, interesting, and helps them learn.

Students have freedom to design any kind of game they choose and have the resources to create. The whole class designs the project rubric.

Teachers consulted a professional game designer to generate the process of game development; she came as a guest speaker at the beginning of the unit to teach students about the game design process. Student peers provide the expert audience for rating the games.

Regardless of students’ home language or culture, they are likely to have been exposed to games of some kind. The project offers a variety of access points for students to take the science they have learned and apply it to a game context.

Students work in groups to design and present their games. They also design the project rubric as a class.

Students learn to appropriately use chemistry vocabulary – core and valence electrons, protons, neutrons, electronegativity, nucleus, etc. They hold each other accountable for using the terms correctly because their games must correctly reflect their usage.