The innovation proposed is to develop a video game for elementary school teachers and students using inquiry-based learning to demonstrate interdependencies in ecological systems. High-quality science teaching tools are needed because the US is ranked 17th in science education among developed nations (PISA 2009), which may be in part due to lack of teacher training in science (Roehrig et al. 2011). The proposed video game will allow teachers, regardless of science background, to create customizable microhabitats (i.e., islands) with different geographical features. Players will be prompted to use observation and experimentation to determine the optimal combinations of organisms that will thrive in their virtual world. The game will encourage players to ask questions, experiment, analyze, and solve problems in an interactive virtual environment. The aim of this project is to enhance children's natural curiosity while teaching them scientific reasoning, and to develop in them analytical process and thinking skills necessary for solving multiple-variable real-world problems. The development of these skills will ultimately promote interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions.
The broader/commercial impact is increasing student interest in STEM professions by filling a market niche that is currently empty: ecology-themed video games for elementary school students. In a technically competitive world, U.S. educational systems must aggressively focus on teaching our youngest to understand and use scientific thinking. Local teachers, children, and parents will work with our programmers to have significant input into the game design. It is crucial to consider the difficulties that elementary educators face when teaching science, since teachers will take the lead in presenting this game to their students in the classroom. Furthermore, the video game will offer a way for schools that may not have ready access to outdoor areas (e.g., urban schools who enroll a disproportionately large number of minority students underrepresented in STEM professions) to conduct hands-on experimentation and to design and test ecological experiments in a virtual environment. There are currently no video games on the market that teach elementary school students ecological concepts while training them to think like a scientist. This lack of commercial competition, paired with a need for additional science resources in schools, indicates a commercial market opportunity for this video game.
Budding Biologist researched the feasibility of creating an inquiry-based, ecology-themed video game for elementary school students. Our market research indicated that we should release interim games as we create our final products; therefore, we have created the first in a series of three scientifically accurate video games. We collaborated with scientists at the University of California, Davis, who have spent over 30 years studying plants and animals on microislands in the Bahamas. Budding Biologist used these data to inform the behavior and interactions of the organisms on the islands. Players explore an island as they search for brown anole lizards to catch, measure and mark. These measurements are recorded and graphed in their field notebook. Players then click on plants and animals on the island to receive either a fact or a question about the organism, which is also recorded in their field notebook. As players progress through increasingly complicated islands, they learn more about the islands’ plants and wildlife and earn additional tools to help them capture the lizards. The game will be packaged with lesson plans, worksheets and assessment tools for teachers in the summer of 2014. This education package will allow teachers with little science background or a low level of comfort with science, to teach science in their classroom without additional teacher training. The game will also allow students to explore an ecosystem that is in their perverbial backyard (i.e. the Bahamas) that they would not otherwise explore. Finally, the game is fun and engaging to students in order to get them excited about learning science. Entitled Lizard Island: Observations, this game is intended for ages 5-10 years old. It will be released for home use in late March 2014 in the iTunes store and in April 2014 in the Google Play store for Android devices.
