The theme park in Taiga provides both content and game support to teachers.

Well, now you can!   We’ve recently introduced our PD theme parks, areas in Teacherville to help teachers experience an abridged version of the Unit while learning how to best support their students’ use of the curriculum.  Each theme park will allow teachers to try out a special Mission based on the Unit where they can learn about the narrative, the most consequential student moments, as well as gain insights into how to best support students in their understanding of the material.  Teachers can try the Unit on for size, literally, as they put on a  Native American outfit in Mesa Verde or try on the campaign hat in the statistics Unit.  How fun would it be to join your students in the 3D space wearing a Native American outfit as a teaser?  Seeing your teacher wearing a news reporter hat or a squash blossom necklace might be just the ticket to generating a little more excitement about an upcoming QA Unit.

Teachers can submit exemplary Quests to share with others

More importantly, teachers get a full understanding of the Unit in a VERY short time!   These new PD missions take only 20-30 minutes to experience, but are chock full of teacher tidbits, videos and content.  In the theme park itself, we’ve even added additional supports, such as teacher forums where teachers can share insights from their use of the curriculum, examples of exemplary Quests and other background materials to fully prepare you for teaching the Unit.  We encourage teachers to post on the forums or submit these example Quests — either Quests that were wonderful from the start, or Quests that became wonderful after feedback.  This is one way teachers can share their successes with others in the QA community, as well as develop an idea of what kind of work can result from these Units.

A short immersive experience…additional resources…community support…the price of this ticket could be extravagant, but you’ll be admitted for free upon entering Teacherville!  These theme parks are always open, and after jumping a board to take the ride, teachers may find themselves better prepared to support their students in their exploration of the curriculum. 

Cotton candy is optional.

This summer we are analyzing the classroom conversations that we’ve recorded in multiple classrooms around the United States, with the goal of understanding how game narratives can impact whole-class discussions. Our goal is to better understand how technology is integrated into classrooms. We’ve already observed lots of inspiring examples from teachers–here are a few tips that seem to make whole-class discussions especially effective:

Stay immersed in the narrative: It’s easy to pull back from the story to emphasize the important things that you want students to know and understand. We’ve found that when teachers discuss concepts while continuing to be immersed in the storyline, students’  interest and engagement is strengthened.

Stage a debate: Almost all the activities in Quest Atlantis involve some kind of unresolved issue. Frequently, those issues allow for more than one reasonable perspective. Capitalize on this tension and ask students to defend their perspectives–it’s amazing how impassioned students can get!

Target the big ideas: Allegiance to characters or interest in sub-plots can captivate students’ attention, true, but they are also the key to supporting students to grapple with important concepts. For example, in Taiga, students might find that they have sympathy for one particular group–like the indigenous farmers. Unfortunately, sympathy isn’t terribly persuasive; they need to be able to understand how other groups are contributing to the fish decline if they REALLY want to protect the farmers. So understanding the role of erosion on water quality, for example, is going to be key to effectively defending their position. Without deeply understanding the concepts, students may be ready to take action, but they will lack the tools they need to be effective.