In my last post, I reflected on my course gamification efforts so far this year. In this post, I will share my game-based learning (GBL) plans.
Ever Since I started gamifying my classes I knew that the real power of engagement wasn’t in making my normal course more game-like only, but in having kids play actual games, too (the difference between Gamification – doing regular coursework with gaming elements – and Game-Based Learning also GBL – learning by playing actual games). I also knew that I couldn’t find Science games for all my curriculum so having my students play games regularly didn’t seem possible or even plausible.
My first attempt at GBL in the Science classroom was having my 8th graders learn about classifying living things in the World of Warcraft game. What I learned from that experience is that although my 8th graders were 100% engaged in playing the game and problem-solving and communicating and collaborating while playing the game, all 21st Century Skills they need to practice in school, they really didn’t engage with classifying living things. So I never tried that again.
My second attempt proved slightly more successful, I used the WoWinSchools curriculum to have my students play World of Warcraft to engage with the Journey of a Hero within stories. As a unit in literacy, playing World of Warcraft was more successful but I still had kids that, while playing the game, didn’t really engage with the follow-up work. The first time I tried WoWinSchools went pretty well and it only got better in subsequent years so there is more potential there.
My third attempt at GBL was with the Future City Competition. Teams plan a future city based on the current year’s theme and they get to digitally design their city in the game SimCity. Teams get to build an actual model of a part of their sim city so it’s a wonderful activity that incorporates a great game that kids enjoy. Overall, it was pretty successful even though I expected better models that were better designed and thought out. Had I continued to teach that class I would have done that project again because it was very rich.
Bringing games into the classroom to support student learning and improve student engagement is definitely worth doing, but what I’m finding is that game-playing with certain games should be more about the 21st century skills I mentioned earlier. If you want students to engage with your content, you need to find a game that is as well-made as World of Warcraft or SimCity AND actively teaches your content. I haven’t found nor used any games like that for the content I teach (6th grade = volcanoes, energy and forces, robotics, climate change, human impact on the environment).
Then there’s the lovely little game called Minecraft. Minecraft has an Education Edition (Minecraft:EE) that works well with schools’ Microsoft accounts that makes GBL highly accessible to many grade levels and content areas. Teachers can access lessons and already-created-Minecraft-worlds right from the Minecraft Education website. So aside from my few attempts above at bringing games into the classroom, I haven’t done much more than what I’ve mentioned already. The thought of what I could cut out from my current curricula to add a game has made it that I have chosen to keep my curricula intact. Unless the game really teaches what I’m currently teaching and does it better, I won’t give up the great things we’re already doing. I only incorporate something new if it will help my students learn better than what I’m currently doing. And yes, I will experiment to see if something new is better than what I’m doing. My 6th grade Science curriculum has what has been most successful and even though I do change things up, I haven’t added much in the way of games, not even Minecraft. Then this year I got a homeroom class of 6th graders that meets for about 35 minutes every day in the morning. The theme of that class is writing and how I have my kids write and what they write is completely up to me! That was my way to try Minecraft:EE and it was great! I used Classcraft to push out assignments to kids and I have those quests here for those who have or use Classcraft and want to see what I did:
- My Classcraft Your Journey Quest to give you an idea of how I started the course with a mini Amazon Fires research activity to write blog posts about the Amazon fires.
- My E1Q2 Classcraft Quest gets students started in planning their class book. Kids are writing stories and using Book Creator to make books!
- My E2Q1 Classcraft Quest shows how I incorporated Minecraft EE into this class. Once all my students started drafting their books I had them choose a scene to create in Minecraft! It was a hit.
My other plan was providing an eSports club to students to give them opportunities to compete, problem-solve, think critically, communicate, collaborate and be part of a school team experience all while playing a game! Once I found out that Minecraft was also an eSports game, I knew that was the one for us. Up until January in the mornings before classes start I was coaching one of our three First Lego League teams in a Robotics Club. Once that ended I started an eSports club for 6th graders since our high school is offering eSports for the first time this year. I heard of one teacher using Minecraft Education Edition as their eSports game! Since we already have Minecraft EE and it’s more widely accepted than more violent eSports games I though that would be an easier sell for 6th-grade families, especially since 6th grade is part of the elementary this year. Our middle school was disbanded due to declining enrollment to 7th and 8th grade are part of the high school now. Technically jr high but still in the mix with the sr high students. Here’s how that eSports Minecraft Club has been going so far (a huge success).
My final plan for bringing more of a game-like feel into the classroom is actually an unplugged idea – Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Playing D&D in the classroom would be another way to bring a layer of fun to school. Classcraft already gave my students fantasy characters and roles to play (warriors, mages, and healers)! But the fantasy genre just didn’t fit my Science course. Then I found the Star Trek Adventure Role-Playing game that is D&D for Star Trek! I haven’t done anything with it yet. Frankly, this, like Minecraft, seems like it would be fun to do in Science but I just can’t find anything to take out to give time to have kids play Minecraft or play a Star Trek role-playing adventure. But I still have my homeroom writing class! I thought of using the Star Trek Adventures character creation sheet to have students develop their Classcraft characters in more detail. Then we would play a game and kids can either just write about their characters or write about their characters in the adventure we play in class. I’m willing to try it even I’ve never been a dungeon mater (meaning I’ve never led any type of D&D game). I’m afraid it will flop miserably but I’ll never know for sure unless I try! So this is still a plan I would like to implement, I just need to wait for the right time to implement it so I’m not stopping what we’re currently working on to do so.
Have you tried any games in your class? Which ones? Do you have great game ideas for teaching content? Please share in the comments section below.
