1. You Make Me Sick! Online Game Teaches Science to Middle Schoolers
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“This is your target” the game says, pointing at an ordinary looking cartoon woman in a T-shirt
and track pants. “If you pay close attention to the host’s weaknesses, you can make a disease
that will get the host super duper sick!”
The premise of the “You Make Me Sick!” online game, which won a $50k prize last week from
the National STEM Video Game Challenge, is that middle school kids invent an pathogen and
fight the immune system — learning science along the way. The game steps players through
several stages: briefing them on the habits and weaknesses of a target human, devising an evil
pathogen (e.g., a virus or bacterium with different transmission means, shapes and
characteristics), and playing a short arcade game in the lungs or guts of the human — battling
the pathogen against immune cells.
About the game
The charming game hopes to engage kids in the process of infection, and familiarize them with
attributes of pathogens and how infections occur.
The game is designed so that kids who don’t like to read or have trouble deciphering text can
learn some microbiology. Dr. Matthew Marino, an assistant professor of special education
at Washington State University worked on the education aspects of the game. Since learning
abilities are a continuum, Marino says, “Our hypothesis is that if you build a game that
addresses the unique challenges students with disabilities face, all students will benefit because
the design will account for the wide range of diversity that is present in every class.”
The game fits typical curriculum standards of middle school (ages 11-14) science classrooms,
and is intended to “motivate, engage, and teach a diverse range of students about science.” It’s
online, running in web browsers with Adobe Flash version 10, and works on virtually all web
browsers in the U.S. The game play itself is a little confusing and the arcade functions are
cumbersome, but the overall design successfully draws gamers through, to experience the
interplay between the pathogen and the host’s immune system.
Games for learning
The success of the approach for this game is still unknown. The series of games are designed
around the Universal Design For Learning (UDL) framework, which the team hopes will help
meet the needs of all students. But Marino says, “the teaching methods within the game need
additional empirical research.” “There is very little research about how to transfer empirically
validated strategies from the classroom into a game.” They will test the games by comparing
learning outcomes among kids that play the game vs. kids that are taught via conventional
means.
Meanwhile, Marino and Filament are continuing with the game pipeline. Their next game,
“Prisoner of Echo” is about sound, and comes out next month.
Check out the “You Make Me Sick!” online game yourself!
Update 7-Apr-11: Clarified details about Filament’s contest submission; corrected SBIR contract
details.