National Geographic Kids Space Game

 My original goal was to find a game that I had played when in school, but my memory is bad and I couldn't think of one or find any. I do remember, vaguely, playing the Oregon Trail game in middle school. But I decided to go a different route and find a new game that I could potentially utilize in my science room. It is a space astronaut game from National Geographic Kids. The levels are the different planets in our solar system. After getting enough tickets the player can unlock the next planet. After each level, students can learn facts about the different planets. The player has to maneuver the astronaut around various obstacles and collect stars and hearts/life. Some of the levels did get hard as the obstacles started to move.

According to Gee (2013), "a good game feels highly challenging, but ultimately 'doable'" (pp. 316). This means that the student should be able to experience success and failure during the game. Gee refers to this as "pleasurable frustration" (pp. 316). While playing the space game, I found it difficult myself to move the astronaut around various obstacles in each level. I actually got frustrated at one point! Then I kept trying and was able to figure it out. I have played games like this before, for example flappy bird is very similar. Like Gee says, I had to take skills I had previously and incorporate them into new strategies for this game (Gee, 2013).

This is a one player game that requires skills to maneuver through the obstacles on each level, for example lava from volcanoes or tornadoes. Anyone who plays this game will experience the same play orientation. According to Hung (2013), it can be hard for a player to determine the learning or purpose behind a game. The purpose of this game is to learn facts about each planet in our solar system. I would say this game is a form of situated learning because it provides the rules of the game, and the players will learn by engaging in the game how to move their astronaut around the obstacles (Hung, 2013).

According to Bradley and Kendall (2015), by utilizing simulations/games in the classroom, it helps enhance student learning. If students are learning about space, then this game would be an aid to help students understand the differences or similarities between planets. Using games is a hands-on learning experience that could be embedded into their memories. The more a simulation resembles real-life, the more of a meaningful impact it will have in a students' learning. This space game does not resemble real-life 100%, but it does incorporate real facts about each of the planets and an astronaut that is the player, and obstacles from each planet that are realistic. For example, Mercury has tornado obstacles, Venus has volcano obstacles, Mars has dust storms, and Jupiter has thunderstorms (Bradley & kendall, 2015).

Here is the link to the game: Space Explorer (nationalgeographic.com)

References:

Bradley, E. G., & Kendall (2015). A review of computer simulations in teacher education. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 43(1) 3-12.

Gee, J. P. (2013). Learning about learning from a video game. In Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (Eds.), A new literacies reader: Educational perspectives (vol. 66, pp. 305-320). Peter Lang.

Hung, A. (2013). Situated play: Instruction and learning in fighter games. In Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (Eds.), A new literacies reader: Educational perspectives (vol. 66, pp. 321-352).