In this playful introduction to the world of bacteria, players create a simple visual representation of bacteria reproduction, mutation, and antibiotic resistance. Click to add bacteria and watch as they reproduce, mutate, and pass on their attributes.

AtomTouch is a molecular simulation app, created through a partnership between UW MRSEC and Field Day Lab. It allows learners to explore principles of thermodynamics and molecular dynamics in a tactile, exploratory way. The simulation was developed to help students understand the structures and attributes of particles at the molecular level, providing real-time feedback and responding to students’ actions.

AtomTouch is a molecular simulation app, created through a partnership between UW MRSEC and Field Day Lab, that allows learners to explore principles of thermodynamics and molecular dynamics in a tactile, exploratory way.

Learn how carbon moves through the world! In this board-game style game, players use Action cards, like Photosynthesis and Soil Respiration, to convert carbon from one form to another. Available as single player or multiplayer.

This simple puzzle game introduces kids to crystals! Players join the kids of the Yard and try their hand at arranging molecules with different shapes and properties into an ordered, stable configuration. Learn about crystals, repeating patterns, and molecular charges.

The IceCube VR experience puts you in the role of an astrophysicist who journeys deep into space to track down the source of a neutrino detected by the IceCube observatory in Antarctica. At the research station at the South Pole, you will see the large instrument, buried in the ice, detect a mesage from across the universe. Using your “impossibility drive,” you will follow the neutrinos path back to the black hole it was emitted from. Along the way, you will be able to take in awe inspiring views from the edge of the solar system, looking back from the milky way and dangerously close to a black hole. You will be able to see using not only your normal visible spectrum, but also using X-ray vision and neutrino vision, revealing entirely different views of space.

In Headlines and High Water, players take on the role of a young journalist in the fictional town of Twin Lakes, where the annual Cherry Festival is thrown into chaos by a catastrophic flood. The player is tasked with interviewing locals and writing stories to keep the town informed—all while staying safe during the town’s worst flood of the century.

Throughout the game, players build trust with the townspeople and interview a cast of quirky characters—like Birdie, the aptly-named nature conservationist, and Fred Finkler, the gardener who’ll talk your ear off. In the end, the player’s reporting will determine if Twin Lakes is still around a year from now, or if future floods wash the town right off the map.

Go flying with the kids of The Yard and learn the science behind hot air balloons! Players control their altitude by heating the balloon or releasing air with the air flap. Learn about buoyancy, volume, and air pressure, or use the Playground setting to fly your balloon however you want and experiment with all the gauges!

In 2013, Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler led the "Video Games and Learning MOOC" at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This video series, presented by Learning & Literacy Specialist, James Paul Gee, was a part of that course.

This quick-to-view, accessible video series explores the 13 "Good Learning Principles" found within well-designed video games; these learning principles align precisely with similar beneficial learning principles that are widely embraced within successful classrooms and other educational environments. The series' components were originally identified and discussed in James Paul Gee's book "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781403984531/whatvideogameshavetoteachusaboutlearningandliteracysecondedition).

The videos offer educators of all types that are interested in the learning principles of well-designed games a swift yet comprehensive overview of usable language and pedagogical concepts related to effective games-based learning; this information can be used to spark further research and discussion, or could be utilized to develop new learning pathways and methodologies in libraries and classrooms.

YouTube Video Description: "Video games aren’t just fun, they can be powerful vehicles for learning as well. In this course, we discuss research on the kinds of thinking and learning that go into video games and gaming culture, benefits and drawbacks of digital gameplay, tensions between youth culture and traditional education, and new developments intended to bridge that growing divide."

Jo Wilder and the Capitol Case is a tool for students to engage in critical thinking and historical inquiry. As the plot unfolds, players come across primary source materials. Players use the same skills as real historians: investigation, identification, corroboration and contextualizing evidence. To win each challenge, players must piece together the evidence to argue their case. The game was designed by WPT Education, Field Day Lab, and a cohort of 3rd-5th grade social studies teachers. The game was tested by students throughout the state of Wisconsin.

Play as Jo Wilder, a scrappy girl who spends her days with her pet badger Teddy and her grandpa, a historian. When some mysterious artifacts show up at the History Museum, you must unravel the clues to find the real stories behind the artifacts.

Students will engage with the game as a tool for critical thinking and historical inquiry. As the plot unfolds, players come across primary source materials. They use the same skills as real historians: investigation, identification, corroboration and contextualizing evidence. To win each challenge, players must piece together the evidence to argue their case.

Jo Wilder and the Capitol Case is just the spark for a world of deeper learning opportunities that you create with students in your own classroom. Access the educator guide for guiding questions to use with learners, game save codes, standards supported, and more.

In the strategic building game Lakeland, you’ve decided to build a new town called Lakeland. In order to grow your town and keep your people alive, you need food and resources.

Luckily, you’ve got some friendly advisors to help you get started. Your Farm Advisor shows you how to grow corn. Now your people have food! Then you start a dairy farm. People love dairy. Milk, cheese, ice cream… what could go wrong?

As it turns out, a lot. Cows don’t just produce milk. They also produce lots and lots of poop, which means the lakes your people love are about to turn into a toxic cesspool of blue-green algae. Your mission: grow your town without destroying their lakes.

This game puts kids in charge of building their own town. Players add houses and farms, export produce, and manage resources like food, money, and manure. Students will get an introduction to the complex relationship between farming, soil nutrition, and lake pollution.

Take a deep dive into maritime mysteries with this point-and-click adventure game! Learners will use critical thinking and historical inquiry skills to recover the real treasure—the stories of shipwrecks inspired by real Great Lakes history.

Dive into the game, and explore the educator guide at pbswisconsineducation.org/emerald.

In Legend of the Lost Emerald, kids take on the role of maritime archaeologists exploring shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. Like real archaeologists, players use sonar and GPS coordinates, dive down to take underwater photos, and search for clues in historical artifacts, like letters and ship manifests, to tell the story of each shipwreck. We teamed up with maritime archaeologists at Wisconsin Sea Grant and amazing teacher fellows from across the state of Wisconsin to design a game that works in the classroom and introduces kids to the tools and practices of the field.

Teachers can use this game to introduce kids to historical practices and themes from ecology, technology, and Wisconsin history. Students will learn about the role of maritime archaeologists, archivists, historians, and museum curators. The game introduces four different time periods in maritime history, ranging from wooden schooners in the mid-1800s to steel freighters in the 1960s.

You are a material scientist who just crash-landed on an abandoned mining planet. You’re out of fuel, and your suit’s oxygen is running low. You need to mine enough fuel to power your ship, or you won’t survive.

You stumble into the old mining facility. That’s where you meet MAL, the mine’s Artificial Intelligence, who is thrilled to have someone to talk to. With MAL’s help, you’ll build scientific models to predict if you’re mining fast enough and what you need to do next.

Each level puts the student in the role of the scientific modeler. Students will set up equations, work with graphs, input data, and use models to make predictions. Along the way, as obstacles keep popping up, students will experience how models are used as a tool to make decisions.

Note: For best compatibility, use Chrome.

Use Lost at the Forever Mine to introduce units on graphing or scientific modeling. The game was designed to help kids experience the need for math to make predictions. This story-based game gives a context to why graphing, math equations, and collecting data can help us solve problems.

Try introducing a unit with this game. Let the kids figure out how the game works with little introduction. Remember, struggling to figure it out is part of the process. Games are safe places for struggle and failure to become part of the fun.

The Thermodynamics VR captures the Equation of State of water--a concept from undergraduate thermo classes--in a simulation that students can touch and see and manipulate. This project is an exciting partnership with John Pfotenhauer, Professor of Thermodynamics at UW-Madison, who uses the simulation with his intro-level students.

Players stand in front of a virtual table and conduct experiments with a cylinder of water, a common example used in thermodynamics courses. Usually, the example is only theoretical. In the VR simulation, it becomes tactile and hands-on. Players can use tools on the table--a Bunsen burner, cooling coils, weights, balloons, and more--to alter the temperature, volume, and pressure of the substance and see how the water responds.

Requires a VR Headset.

04/14/21 | 59m 20s | Rating: TV-G

David Gagnon, Director of the Field Day Lab at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UW-Madison, discusses the educational advantages of using video games and simulators as teaching tools. Games offer opportunities to actively learn new concepts and to fail without real world consequences.

Named after the collective noun for a group of penguins on land, Wadde: A Penguin’s Tale introduces players to polar research at Cape Royds, Antarctica. We worked closely on this project with Jean Pennycook, a polar researcher and educator who has been studying Adelie penguins at the South Pole for more than twenty years. The game immerses players in a beautiful, distant world they wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience: the Antarctic ice. Take on the role of a penguin, play some adorable mini games, and learn how penguins build nests and defend their eggs against the predatory skua.

Wake is a science game that challenges students with engaging and authentic missions in a variety of ocean-based ecosystems, designed to target the NGSS science practices of experimentation, modeling, and argumentation, in the context of middle school life sciences.

In the game, students take the role of a scientist studying ocean ecosystems, traveling to different ocean research sites to answer questions and solve problems. Students play the game at their own pace, working individually, and taking on gradually more complex science challenges in an open-ended environment.

Check out the Teacher Support Site for curriculum ideas and resources: https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/waketeacherguide/home

This game introduces kids to the science of sound waves! Join the kids of the Yard as they discover a mystery Wave Combinator and figure out how it works. Players take on simple challenges, adjust wavelength, amplitude, and offset, and learn how waves interact with each other.