Both installments of the Portal games have been lauded for the educational value of their physics-based puzzles, but now Valve is working to make education a more explicit goal of the games.
On June 22, Joystiq reported that Valve will be adding authoring tools to Portal 2, thereby making it possible for, say, instructors to create problems for their students so as to demonstrate physics concepts. Stayed tuned to the Portal web site for the upcoming release of these tools.
A simple game for learning base systems illustrates many of the connections between game based learning and other pedagogies. This game can be played in a liberal arts or mathematics for elementary education class. The game is a variant of Bizz Buzz, often played as a drinking game.
Students sit in a circle and count off – one, two three, four. The fifth person, instead of saying five, says “bizz.” The count continues – one, two, three, four, bizz. After four people have said bizz, the count changes — one, two, three, four, buzz. This is a base 5 counting game, with 105, or 5, represented by bizz, and 1005, or 25, represented by buzz. The game typically engenders much laughter as students who are not quite paying attention say 5 instead of bizz, or bizz instead of buzz. Students help each other to say the right word, “Say bizz!” they call out to the confused fifth person. But the game is not too hard, and soon everyone has the hang of it.
Explicit connections can then be made between the game and the notation for base 5. For example, the seventh person is bizz + two = 125 in base 5. The connection can also be made to base 5 manipulatives — units, 5-unit rods, and 25-unit squares. The game can later be played in a different base, to extend the difficulty level and to deepen understanding.
Mission US is a multimedia project featuring free interactive adventure games set in different eras of U.S. history. The first game, Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?,” puts the player in the shoes of Nat Wheeler, a 14-year-old printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston. As Nat navigates the city and completes tasks, he encounters a spectrum of people living and working there when tensions mount before the Boston Massacre. Ultimately, the player determines Nat’s fate by deciding where his loyalties lie.
Mission 2, “Flight to Freedom,” which focuses on resistance to slavery, will launch in fall of 2011.
