EDUC 422 ITSE Article Response V “Teach your Budding Scientists to be Gamers”

Barko, T., T. Sadler. (2011) Teach your budding scientists to be gamers. Learning and Leading. 38(11), 38-39. http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-november-2011.aspx

This article brings up some very important points on technology in the classroom and how skills learned from gaming may help science students get professions in the scientific field in the future. Mission Biotech creates games that allow students to interact with pending scientific scenarios that are prevalent in science today. Students can interact with scenarios with anything in the environment. This includes looking at West Nile Virus and SARS. This is a great system because it allows students to become acclimated to what Scientists do on a day to day basis. Even teachers have gotten hooked to the gaming and are happy to use it in their classroom.

This seems like a very valuable resource for science teachers to use in their classroom. Teachers can use the games created by Mission Biotech to create a unique learning environment for their students. The game does have some drawbacks. Teachers have run into some technological problems when using the games in the classroom. Mission Biotech just needs to trouble shoot these technological problems so teachers can implement them in the classroom.

 I don’t think I would use this in the classroom since I am going to teach social science. It is a pretty valuable resource though. I feel this article best represents the ISTE NETS Standard 1 “Creativity and Innovation”. The video game allows the students to use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. Also teachers can use existing information in the field to develop innovative products and processes.