[Edu] Game design project in a classroom

[Carol Townsend]

Ryan, do you realize how much you rock?

This is so cool - getting kids to think critically about their own work and
to accept criticism from their peers.  This is more valuable, in my opinion,
than learning the biological classification
system (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order...etc) - and I'm a biology teacher by
training!

Now if we can just get this class to be offered by other schools....

Carol

On 2/1/08, miyu <xmiyux at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Our game design project has been under way for a week now and appears to
> be going well.
>
>
>
> All students were given a rubric that the final game will be judged on.  Here
> is a link to the rubric online:
> http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1511921&
>
>
>
> Each group was given 2 tubes of Treehouse, any extra dice they wanted, and
> one free choice from my "treasure chest" of assorted toys and game pieces.
>  Of the three groups, one chose a chessboard, one chose a cache of fake
> money, and the third group chose a plastic bag of small farm animals.
>
>
>
> They then had a few studio days to work on the first iteration of their
> game and come up with a prototype.  They played their prototype for 2 days
> making tweaks and then typed up a draft of the rules.
>
>
>
> To run the playtest sessions in an organized fashion I did playtests for 3
> days.  Group A was having group B test their game.  To do this group B was
> handed all the materials and typed rules and had to learn it on their own
> with no interaction from the creators.  Group A watched the entire game
> session and took notes on where group B made mistakes or had problems.  There
> was a 5 minute debriefing session at the end where the game creators (Group
> A) asked the testers any questions they wanted.  Finally Group B gave the
> designers any notes or comments on the game that they wanted.
>
>
>
> While all of this was going on Group C was instructed to play their own
> game and "try to break it." They enjoyed trying to twist their own rules and
> see if the game could stand up on its own.
>
>
>
> Of all the games, the one using the chessboard seems the easiest for
> anyone to pick up and play.  If they allow me to I may even post the rules
> to that game for others on here to give a shot.  It was the most
> "pyramid-heavy" of the three games.
>
>
>
>                                   -Ryan
>
>
> --
> Ora, lege, lege, lege, relege, labora et invenies.
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>


-- 
Carol Townsend
carol.townsend at gmail.com
H: 630.681.0311
C: 630.215.6027
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