The following section is a tutorial for high school science teachers who are interested in incorporating the digital game, The Radix Endeavor (RE), as a tool to help support the learning of various math concepts within their science lessons. This tutorial consists of the following four parts:
- An Introduction to the game;
- A checklist that teachers should use to evaluate if RE is an appropriate tool for your learning environment;
- A getting started section that provides information for teachers on how to begin organizing and planning for using RE;
- A sample lesson plan modelling how teachers can use the game as a support tool within their science lessons.
Introduction to The Radix Endeavor
The Radix Endeavor brings 2D online multiplayer gaming into the land of science education. This game was developed in partnership between MIT’s Education Arcade and The Scheller Teacher Education Program with funds provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is a MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) that takes the open world exploration and quest structures of blockbuster games like World of Warcraft and The Elder Scrolls to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning in middle and high school. Students explore the Island of Ysola and soon discover that this world is in need of people with knowledge. Teachers can exploit the flexibility that an open world setting allows students to explore and discover quests or challenges that require them to use what they have learned in class. Furthermore, teachers can use this game to frontload students and challenge them to solve problems that they may not have had experience with in a classroom setting. The Radix Endeavor also allows teachers to create a class to help guide their students through this world and also be able to assign students specific quests that relate to what is being learned and track both individual student and class progress.
In the game, students first decide what their avatar will look like and are transported to the Bladed Plains on the island of Ysola. They are tasked with the job of helping an underground group search for solutions to the island’s environmental and social problems. Players collaborate with other players to conduct experiments, develop hypotheses, and discover how the biological and mathematical systems work. The initial phase of Radix touches on multiple strands in both high school science and math. In Biology, Radix covers Ecology, Evolution, Genetics and Human Body Systems. While in Mathematics, it covers Algebra, Geometry, Probability and Statistics.
In the game, students first decide what their avatar will look like and are transported to the Bladed Plains on the island of Ysola. They are tasked with the job of helping an underground group search for solutions to the island’s environmental and social problems. Players collaborate with other players to conduct experiments, develop hypotheses, and discover how the biological and mathematical systems work. The initial phase of Radix touches on multiple strands in both high school science and math. In Biology, Radix covers Ecology, Evolution, Genetics and Human Body Systems. While in Mathematics, it covers Algebra, Geometry, Probability and Statistics.
(Radix Endeavor, 2013). Radix: Pedagogical Overview.
|
What Subjects Does The Radix Endeavor Cover?
Mathematics:
|