Researchers Integrate Web Games with Science Education

 Games are becoming more and more useful in classroom instruction, as an increasing number of game creators are using research from educators to design games that make learning – especially learning science – easier for students.  Experts believe that there are similarities between science – curiosity, inquiry, and investigation – and successful computer games.

Games like www. ScienceMystery.com, Medical Mysteries (http://medmyst.rice.edu/) and the River City Project (http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/ ) have proven to be useful classroom tools in teaching students science.  Medical Mysteries games aim to present information about infectious diseases to middle school students.  The game creators consulted panels of teachers and scientists. 

In addition researchers at Rice University, where the game was created, conduct tests on students, who play the games to find out how much of the information they retain.  Studies find that the most effective games are based on research and feedback from students and teachers.  In addition, Web-based games are more conducive to making changes based on this feedback.  Furthermore, Web-based games are often free and can be accessed by students from various locations at one time.

The River City Project was created by a team of researchers with a grant from the National Science Foundation.  Middle school students can travel back in time to the 19th century and solve the community’s health problems based on 21st century knowledge.
Although games exist that help students learn, many teachers don’t use them in the classrooms.  The obvious challenge is getting enough computers for each student.  But the challenges don’t end there.  Some teachers don’t have the technical know-how to troubleshoot the game, or to customize the game to make it most applicable to the curriculum. Games like Medical Mysteries created a package of teacher materials to go along with their game to help to remedy that problem.

As game creators become more adept to making real-time changes for classroom instruction, game creators are hoping that more teachers will use online games as a learning tool.

— Teachers of Color