The researchers at the Friday Institute of Educational Innovation have been in the process of developing new technology to improve the techniques used to educate children. The researchers have been working on a project to see how video games can help children learn. They hope that this project will spark an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas.
Both the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Education have come together to work on this project. Researchers Hiller Spires, professor and senior research fellow at the Friday Institute and co-principal investigator; James Lester, lead principle investigator and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science; John Nietfeld, associate professor in the college of education; James Minogue, assistant professor in elementary education; Chris Pfitzer, communication specialist at the Friday Institute and many other professors and graduate students in both education and computer science have collaborated together to work on this project. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation, which has contributed about $4 million to the project.
There are many different video game on the market that cater to education. However, the full effectiveness of these games is unknown. Children who play these games are more engaged than they would be by learning the standard way of through a book Lester said.
“Generally the students get a kick out of it,” Lester said.
This observation led to the creation of “Crystal Island.” The purpose of the project is to see if computer games are an effective method of educating children and, if so, what the best educational techniques in the game are. The game uses technology already developed by commercial gaming companies. Crystal Island specifically uses a PC-based version of the Half Life 2 gaming engine.
The automated intelligent tutoring system used by Crystal Island provides customized feedback, Lester said. The tutoring system studies the student’s knowledge and, based upon how the student progresses, the system decides how much and what kind of help should it give the student. As the students progress through the game, characters will provide information on what to do next. There is rigorous pre-game and post-game testing to determine the best techniques to be used to help the students learn.
The game starts off with the player landing on a ship on Crystal Island. Once on the Island, the player, who plays the role of Alex Reid, learns that an outbreak of an unknown disease has been unleashed and is afflicting many of the characters on the island. The main goal is to figure out what is causing this ailment and find out how to cure it. ഀ
The game also features other sub-plots. In one part, a character in the game can get salmenella from eating an undercooked egg. The player is then presented with this mystery and he must deduce the origin of the disease and its cure by using certain investigative tools that are in the game.
On average it takes students about an hour and a half to get through the whole game.
Developers have plans for different versions of the game. One version is specifically built for eighth graders, and it focuses on studying microbiology. Another version of the game is built for fifth graders and focuses more on the study of ecosystems.
“The idea of the game is to marry games and learning technology and hopefully peak students’ interests in science, so as to interest them to pursue STEM careers,” Spires said.
Once the students are done with the game, they are tested upon the knowledge that they learned from the game.
The eighth grade version of the game has been underway for about a year and half and is expected to be released in about a year or two. The fifth grade version of the game just got started so it will take a few years before it is released. The game will be available through the Web, and it will be free to download.
The game is Windows-based and it will be able to run on an average computers that are available in schools. There are plans to make it able to run on Macs and possibly Linux systems later on in the future.
The project is being tested in two different schools. The eighth grade version of the game is being tested at Centennial Campus Magnet Middle School, while the fifth grade version of the game is being tested at A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary.
Another project in the works is a writing based game for sixth graders. The game will create a creativity enhancement environment to increase the writing abilities and the creativity levels of sixth graders.
