When a user plays a game without an avatar or token that represents them in the game. Players engage with the system as themselves. This differs from board or videogames that have a virtual character or physical object that serves as the player. For example, Monopoly does not utilize the embodied self as the player chooses a token to represent them on the game board; in virtual blackjack games, the player plays as their embodied self to whom cards are dealt.
Published in Chapter:
Dino Lab: Designing and Developing an Educational Game for Critical Thinking
Kirsten R. Butcher (University of Utah, USA), Madlyn Runburg (Natural History Museum of Utah, USA), and Roger Altizer (University of Utah, USA)
Copyright: © 2017
|Pages: 34
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0513-6.ch006
Abstract
Dino Lab is a serious game designed to explore the potential of using games in scientific domains to support critical thinking. Through collaborations with educators and scientists at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU), game designers and learning scientists at the University of Utah, and Title I middle school teachers and students, the authors have developed a beta version of Dino Lab that supports critical thinking through engagement in a simulation-based game. Dino Lab is organized around four key game stages that incorporate high-level goals, domain-specific rule algorithms that govern legal plays and resulting outcomes, embedded reflection questions, and built-in motivational features. Initial play testing has shown positive results, with students highly engaged in strategic game play. Overall, results suggest that games that support critical thinking have strong potential as student-centered, authentic activities that facilitate domain-based engagement and strategic analysis.