CitizenScience. How online gamers are solving science's biggest problems | Tech. For all their virtual accomplishments, gamers aren't feted for their real-world usefulness. But that perception might be about to change, thanks to a new wave of games that let players with little or no scientific knowledge tackle some of science's biggest problems. And gamers are already proving their worth.
In 2011, people playing Foldit, an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. A year later, people playing an astronomy game called Planet Hunters found a curious planet with four stars in its system, and to date, they've discovered 40 planets that could potentially support life, all of which had been previously missed by professional astronomers.
On paper, gamers and scientists make a bizarre union. The potential is huge. Zoran Popovic is the director of the Centre for Game Science at the University of Washington and is the co-creator of Foldit. Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos. Digital Games Transforming K-12 Assessment and Learning. Many teachers are searching for new ways to engage their digital-native students. They are looking for, write researchers at Florida State, “alternative ways of teaching – ways that increase student engagement and yield a rich, authentic picture of the learner(s).”
These researchers say more educators should take a look at the latest in digital games. Games that are designed not only to teach, but to help educators assess learning as it’s happening. GlassLab, a new nonprofit educational game design initiative, has just released its first game— SimCityEdu—based on the popular Simcity brand and called SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! It's a “game-based learning and assessment tool for middle school students” that covers the Common Core as well as the Next Generation Science Standards in the context of environmental science-related challenges. “One of the things that we all get frustrated with is that kids get assessed in the spring and they get that data and feedback back in the fall. The Concord Consortium | Revolutionary digital learning for science, math and engineering.
NSDL.org - National Science Digital Library. PhET: Free online physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and math simulations.