June 2004

Education Arcade

Continued from page 3

By Sally Atwood

All Winners

Education Arcade is now building on Games-to-Teach research and developing its first products for teachers. Squire is working with middle-school and high-school teachers to create lesson plans for Civilization III, which will be available on the Education Arcade website. And Eric Klopfer, head of MIT's teacher education program and the lead researcher on Environmental Detectives, is developing software so that teachers can easily produce their own detective games for any locations.

Within the project, Jenkins is spearheading the development of a new game called Revolution that would help teach the American Revolution in history classes. Philip Tan '01, SM '03, has been supervising the graduate and undergraduate students who are creating the code for the game. Instead of starting from scratch, they are using the commercial game Neverwinter Nights as the basis for Revolution and are reprogramming it so that its virtual world looks like colonial America. The practice, known as "modding," is encouraged by many game companies and is one way that they improve their games and find new employees. Basing Revolution on a commercial game also guarantees that it will be as complex as any game off the shelf. The first installment of Revolution will be tested in Boston-area schools this fall.

For the students and parents who played Hi-Tech Who Done It!, no test is necessary. Sheila Jasalavich, the Museum of Science's courses program manager, was thrilled. "I've never seen a technology project engage women and girls like this game," she says. "A lot of technology leaves girls behind." And there were more accolades from the players. Katie called it "awesome," and her mother called it "cosmic." For Jenkins, the game sums up the goals of the Education Arcade: to make games that are fun and educational and have the same standards as commercial games. Based on the test run at the Museum of Science, it looks as though the project's first attempt is a grand slam.