BIMS

The second game created as a final project by students in BIOL 1300 Intro to Scientific Reseaarch was called “DX – Diagnosis”.  This medical mystery game was created by team members Brianna Schuck, Rachel Walter, Elise Hager, Jared Cramer, Kim Morton, and Kirk Leverton.

DX is a multiplayer game that pits teams against each other to diagnose diseases and prescribe appropriate treatments.  Each player of each team has to earn their medical license and keep it up to date to play a part in the game.  Students can earn money to purchase clues for making their diagnoses as they answer questions and move around the board.

All students in the class played the three games and rated them on their playability, their conformance to the expected specifications, and their inclusion of elements from the course – use of inductive and deductive logic, cause and effect, repetitive use of the question-test-analysis cycle, and so forth.  Students rated it highest in the science content of this game.  They were particularly impressed with the quality of the game board and sophistication of thought that went into the game design.  It was felt this could become a great game for helping prepare future doctors and nurses through an interactive and fun game.  Congratulations to these students for creating such an attractive and engaging game.

The first of the BIMS 1300 Intro to Scientific Research games from the fall semester was entitled “The College Experience” (though its name on the game board said “College Life” – there wasn’t enough space to put their TRUE name!).  Team members were Devin Munoz, Zach Orosco, Patrick Cheney, Dane Bennett, and Benjamin Prieto.

The College Experience is a multiplayer game that takes players through four years of college and centers on the social aspects of college and how good (and bad) decisions can impact a student’s performance toward graduation and self-esteem.  The rather simple game board features a topographical map that symbolizes the journey through four years of college and the hazards along the way.  Making good decisions builds self-esteem and making poor choices results in loss of self-esteem cards.

All students in the class played the three games and rated them on their playability, their conformance to the expected specifications, and their inclusion of elements from the course – use of inductive and deductive logic, cause and effect, repetitive use of the question-test-analysis cycle, and so forth.  Students from the other groups praised this game for its focus on the social aspects of college and how self-esteem can be affected by, and can in turn influence, decisions made and college performance.  Congratulations to this group for their excellent final project.

The final project for the lab this semester in BIMS 1300 Introduction to Scientific Research is development of games that implement all of the concepts we’ve learned this semester.  The checklist of specifications is extensive and each must be defended by the inventors: 

• must require players to use the basics of the scientific method,
• must require qualitative and quantitative observations and analysis,
• must address concepts of accuracy and precision,
• must include elements of “cause and effect”,
• must require players to use inductive and deductive reasoning,
• must include elements of observation without intervention, controlled experimentation, and statistical correlation with intervention (the photo shows a plan one group will use to replicate a double-blind study as players land on particular spaces of their game board).

Three teams are hard at work, with two games focused on college life and the third centered on a “you be the doctor” approach to medical diagnosis and treatment.  Each team will present their game to the class on November 29th, and each team will play each other’s games during the week and critique them based on a rubric incorporating all specifications (there are more than those listed above).

Who knows – maybe one of these will be on your 2011 Christmas list!

All along this semester I’ve told my students we were taking a “wax on, wax off” approach to learning how scientists work (if that flew over your head, watch Karate Kid and you’ll see what I’m talking about).  Even in their final lab project they are seeing how skills used by scientists are applicable to approaching problems they encounter in every day life.  Better critical thinkers developed in a fun and creative environment should prepare these students well for their advanced science courses.