With funding from the National Science Foundation, Jan Cannon-Bowers and her team from the RETRO Lab at the Institute for Simulation & Training at UCF developed a serious game to teach physics to college students.

Called LunarQuest, it is a Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that engages players in a large, persistent, multiplayer game world set on the Moon (see images below). Players assume the role of lunar explorers, builders, and scientists who lead and guide humanity's efforts to colonize the moon. In order to succeed in the game, players must learn and apply concepts from physics. Players advance their characters by their actions, and advancement is awarded with access to new skills, equipment and "prestige" items that allow their character to be unique in skills and appearance.

One of the unique aspects of Lunar Quest’s design is its blending of an immersive 3D world, with 2D, Flash-based mini-games (click on the images below to play some of these now). As players attempt to colonize the lunar surface, they are given specific quests or tasks that require knowledge of physics. In order to learn the necessary concepts, players must play a series of mini games, each of which teaches a particular concept (e.g., basic kinematics). When they demonstrate that they have acquired the knowledge, they are able to apply it in the world to complete their quest. The benefit of this strategy is that it allows pedagogical content to be modular. In other words, new mini-games (lessons) can be added as needed. This allows content to be added or adjusted more easily. For more information on Lunar Quest and other Serious Games see www.ucfretrolab.org.

 

Cannon-Bowers and her team are taking what they have learned in developing and testing Lunar Quest and applying it to the development of a new generation of Serious Games. Our goal is to capitalize on the R&D that has been conducted in this area to develop engaging, story-based games that teach the competencies needed to compete in the 21st century.