CellCraft

CellCraft is a free cell biology game available online (full screen swf) or for download/offline. The game covers the very basics of cell function and organelles, at about the level I learned in middle school. Terms that were well covered include nucleus, ribosomes, RNA, ER (Endoplasmic Reticulum), peroxisome, lysosome, Golgi body, vesicle, fatty acid, amino acid, glucose, nucleic acid, as well as others that are less central to game play. If you’d like to see the whole list, select the full screen link above and flip through the encyclopedia – or better yet, play the game. I think that taking it slow the game could take 2-3 hours depending on the player, I managed to blitz though in about 45 minutes, but that didn’t leave as much time for learning.

What I love about this game is that it really is a game. There are characters, a story, jokes, and a serious chance to fail – even if failing just means restarting the level. Which means that kids learn without ‘studying’ because the game play depends on understanding that ATP is fuel, and lysosomes dissolve things, etcetera. To top it all off, the game is pretty. It’s not cutting edge, but it looks slick and runs well (some hosting sites glitch out about 2 minutes into the game, but I have not had that problem with the links above).

Ease: 10/10
Aesthetics: 10/10
Entertainment: 10/10

There are eight levels, each of which gradually introduces more organelles and their functions

This game was designed with middle school students 11-13 year old in mind, and to be potentially useful for high school students aged  14-18.¹ It would probably not be very useful in a college environment, but I cannot imagine a more useful tool for starting off a middle/high school into to biology course unit on the cell.

It is important to understand that this is a game, and like all games it involves fantasy. Fantasy in games can come in two forms – exogenous fantasy or endogenous fantasy.² An exogenous fantasy has nothing to do with material and could be used to teach almost anything. Example of an exogenous fantasy include hangman, the classic game concentration/memory, the games scatter and space race at Quizlet, or anything found here. The problem with exogenous fantasy is that it is less compelling than an endogenous fantasy, and is less effective at getting the user to really engage in the material.

In contrast, endogenous fantasy is woven into the game itself – meaning that not everything that is said is literally true, because there is a fictional story driving the actions of the player. CellCraft is such a game. For instance, there is no reason to believe that the platypus originated on another planet, or anything else in the plot of this game. Also, you cannot just drop organelles into cells, and everything in the game is simplified to make the mechanics of the game work. BUT if you want kids to remember things like ATP is cellular fuel, and that it comes from glucose, and that glucose is more efficiently turned to ATP by mitochondria, this is a great game. A follow up lesson will probably be necessary to clear up questions about what is and isn’t realistic about the game – but that should not be a problem.

I would recommend it as a homework assignment, with an alternative worksheet for those who can’t or wont play, and including the encyclopedia as required reading. Then, have the students write out questions about the game, and take a quiz to make sure they actually played it. There will be some explining to do, but anything that gets kids to ask questions is a good thing, at least in my book.

Level 8, with a lot of the organelles installed and functioning. Played on Kongregate (the online link) which allows saving progress but that requires registering account.

Released July 2010

¹See AnthonyP’s comment.
² Loyd P., R. (1996). Seriously considering play: Designing interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games. Designing interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games, 44(2), 43-58. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02300540 – See the section on games.

World Education Games

Want to rev up the competition in your class? You can pit your students versus the world at the World Education Games. The games themselves will take place on

5 March – World Literacy Day
6 March – World Maths Day
7 March – World Science Day

Note: These dates are set relative to the host city Sydney – I’m not sure what that means for their start times in the US.

I tried out the math and literacy categories, but the science required a plug-in (for more info on science check page 9 of the teachers guide). Because it’s the age group I work with, I tried out the middle school bracket. In both math and science the ‘game’ is a one on one race with another participant from around the globe. The user is presented with the question at the top of the screen, a graph below showing their opponents progress, and a timer with the time left in the round.

Me losing to a nice Canadian girl at level 4 Maths, where they include negative numbers. The [x] next to my profile means I have gotten one question wrong – after 3 questions wrong you “strike out”.

In the Math games Level 1 the questions started with adding and subtracting single digits from two digit numbers [77-6]. Level 3 escalated to multiplication, division, and complete the sequence [43, 52, 61…], while level 5 included functions as advanced as cube roots, including find the cube root of 6859 [it’s 19].

After each round the questions asked, answers given, and correct answers are shown.

In the Literacy game students race to spell a word after hearing it alone, and then in a sentence. Essentially it is a one on one spelling be. Note: I am a terrible speller. At level 1 i got timetable, plain, rarely, shelves, soil. At level 3 carafe, adept, artisan, enzyme, intense, abyss archery eligible, and at level 5 sortsango, caterwaul, centrifuge, mastectomy, relegation, paradigm, penicillin. To be honest the only reason I got that many in level 5 was because I got a bunch of science words, and I still only got to 7 words.

A screen shot of Literacy Level 3. A voice reads the word, then the sentence using the word. Speakers are necessary for this game.

Normally this blog will focus on creative, well programed, or otherwise exceptional free educating software. The software on WEC is nice enough, with some interesting structures for the questions, but it is sponsored and driven on a host of for-sale educational software. That said, I find the use of competition in educational games worth a post.  Below you will find links to and about the World Education Games, including a teacher’s guide to getting involved.

World Education Games Home Page

WEG Teacher’s Guide

Wikipedia on the WEG

Donna Román’s post on her blog  “Map without Borders” where I first read about the WEG

The Guiness World Record Book entry for the 2010 Maths Day – “The largest online Maths competition” a record they intend to shatter this year

Seterra

Seterra is a geography quiz game. With quizzes spanning geographic features, countries, capitals  and cities Seterra knows a lot more about world geography than I do, but it’s a great teacher. It is available for download or online, the primary difference being the volume of advertisements (3 online vs. 1 offline).

Ease of use/intuitiveness: 9
Aesthetics:6
Entertainment value: 3

Me, failing a quiz about African Countries. A correct 1st answer colors the country white, 2nd attempt pale yellow, 3rd attempt bright yellow. On the 4th attempt the target country flashes red, and is colored red once selected.

The strength of the program is its simplicity – especially off line, the user is presented with a simple, clean interface with few distractions. On line is a little more cluttered, but still easy to use. The visual fed back of coloring the countries is very well done, although I would choose a color other than white to symbolize success – maybe overlay the countries flag.

The 25 largest cities quiz, offline. Before being answered each city is a small dot – look for Dhaka near Ghangzhou.

On the other hand, it is a very simple program that could be further developed. It was first released in 1995, and that is probably why it  is so elementary. Modern students would probably benefit from a bit more flash, maybe more detailed maps with some geography – satellite photos would make a great wow effect – or the option to use night pictures where the lights of cities could be seen.

Other additions would include some integration of international news feeds with current events, and the option to use historic maps. A way to organize classes and track progress (something like Xtramath’s teacher interface) would take this program to the next level.

That said – anyone looking for an easy, relatively pain free way to learn or teach international cities, countries, and geographic features will find that Seterra is exactly what they need.

The menu of Seterra (offline). The game was developed in Sweden, and has much more comprehensive options for Europe, but there is still an impressive amount of information across the globe.

Also check out these other free-ware products from the same designer (who happens to be the author of educational-freeware.com)

• Sebran (early education)
• Selingua (language vocabulary)
• Sephonics (spelling and phonetics – probably best suited for linguistics students)