Life Science in Code Fred

Creating a Rubric for an Online Educational Game.  This is the first time I had to evaluate an electronic game formally for education purposes.  This is also the first time for my group members.  Having no experience, we turned to the internet for information and advice.  We were amazed to fined a plethora of sites and publications that conduct assessments off electronic games for education.  We studied up on different sites and views and came up with a compilation of criteria.  One source we found was a paper written by Moreno-Ger (2008).  The paper examines the role electronic games play (no pun intended) in education and made the following statement: “...regardless of whether that activity is taking place in a formal setting or within entertainment-based worlds where the skills are learned incidentally through play.”  

We also discussed our views of how electronic games would be used in our classroom.  We then combined the resources we found online and our classroom needs.  Here is our Rubric and my assessment of Code Fred:

Code Fred in the Classroom.  Our group believes Code Fred will be best utilized to reinforce human anatomy lessons.  We would introduce the game in the classroom and have the students play it on their own time.  As we continue with the anatomy lessons, we would make references to the game and make connections between the game scenario and the actual body functions.  We believe the games allows students to apply their anatomy knowledge in order to succeed in the game.  Repetitive play will reinforce concepts of human body functions.

First Time Developing a Website.  For our presentation, we used Weebly.com to create a website.  The website allowed us to organize our content for a user friendly experience.  Weebly offered a variety of tools to design the website.  Also to note is the simplicity too design.  After this project, I am inspired to create other websites, especially for my science class.  I highly recommend Weebly.  Not only is it easy & powerful to use, it’s also FREE!

[CLICK] to play Code Fred
or copy & paste the URL: http://www.msichicago.org/play/codefred/#.U55QQC9nFFR

ENJOY!

References

Museum of Science & Technology (2013). Code Fred, http://www.msichicago.org/play/codefred/#.U5erUpSSy00

Galarneau, L., Zibit, M. (2010). Online Games for 21st Century Skills. Gaming and Simulations: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications, Chapter 111 (pages 1874-1900).

Moreno-Ger, P., Burgos, D., Martínez-Ortiz, I., Sierra, J.L., Fernández-Manjón, B. (2008). Educational Game Design for Online Education. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(6), (pp. 2530–2540)