Grant allows Smithsonian, MIT to create interactive, educational online game for students
Beginning April 4, children ages 11 to 14 can begin taking part in a science-fiction interactive mystery event being conducted by the Smithsonian and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The event, known as Vanished, will take place over eight weeks and involves a fictitious environmental disaster. The game’s website, vanished.mit.edu, will reveal a new clue each week, which participants can use to create hypotheses about the cause of the disaster.
"Kids from all across the country can work together to form a scientific community just like you would in the real world and try to solve this puzzle," said Caitlin Feeley, a member of MIT’s personnel.
The event, made possible by an educational grant from the National Science Foundation, is playing on the popularity of online role-playing games, as well as “the popularity of [television shows] CSI and Bones,” according to Scot Osterweil, the creative director of MIT’s Education Arcade.
Many schools nationwide have adopted similar ideas with their attempts to further educational methods. Incorporation of smartboards, computers and classroom projectors has seen significant increases lately.
Like the Smithsonian and MIT, the Center for Education Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit, in West Virginia, has also adopted video games as learning toolsl, using one to educate about the moon.
