SBIR Phase I: Mission: Planet Y--A Game-based Tool for Middle School Science Learning

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This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to create a video game, which uses contemporary 3D game engine technology, and will incorporate capabilities for embedded, performance-based student skills assessment, teacher reporting, and teacher administration tools. The game will simulate real-world, complex problem-solving contexts, and offer students the ability to assume the role of a scientist performing investigations within virtual simulations of ecosystems, gathering data from a variety of sources, analyzing the data, and developing a plan for solving the complex problem. Science and gaming experts, educators, parents, and students will inform the Phase I research. The game will be a significant innovation in terms of the content of the educational software currently available and its learning and assessment design. Using the best of what is known from cognitive science research as a basis, the game will maximize student engagement in learning. Current educational software uses assessments that interrupt game play; in the proposed software, assessment will occur continuously in stealth mode. In other words, students will be unaware of ongoing assessment and remain focused on the science activities.The requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 will drive national demand for tools to teach students science skills, including research and problem solving. Mission: Planet Y will provide a model for electronic curricular resources that create a high level of student interest, motivation, and learning in middle school science. Middle school students using Mission: Planet Y--males and females, those with special needs, and the gifted and talented--will enhance their science skills, content knowledge, and interest in ways that will be reflected on state and national tests and in science class participation. The game engine technology developed for middle school science can be modified to create software for other subject areas and grade levels. Phase I research will consider the marketability to individual households, as well as to schools.