4 Complex games
Games can take many shapes and forms. Educational games can be played in the real world, or in the virtual world, online or offline, on a mobile phone, tablet computer or other types of computer. They can be inspired by board games, books, videogames or even TV shows.
Adapting the format of a popular TV game show has instant appeal for many students. It demonstrates to students that you are ‘current’ and know what your students’ interests are outside school. In other words, it can make you seem more human to your students and develop the student–teacher bond immensely!
Producing some games from scratch can be quite time-intensive, so working collaboratively with other teachers to adapt a TV game show format into a re-usable game to use with your classes is a good strategy that will save you all time and hopefully be an enjoyable experience. Activity 3 enables you to undertake such an exercise in the context of the TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Activity 3: Who Wants to be a Science Millionaire?
This activity will help you to prepare and test a complex game for your class.
Who Wants to be a Science Millionaire? is a quiz game mimicking the very popular and highly successful TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Use Resource 4 to make a game entitled Who Wants to be a Science Millionaire? – The Revision Episode. If there is another science teacher in your school, try to do this with them.
All of the questions in the game you create should be science-based.
The learning aim of the game is that your students are able to effectively revise their three sciences – physics, chemistry and biology – for an upcoming summative assessment. You will need to think carefully about which specific classes you are aiming the game at, because this will influence both the material you include and the level and complexity of the questions you pose.
Test out your game on a small number of students. This is so that you know the questions work. It will also give you experience of the practicalities of running the game for real.
Plan where, in your future teaching sequences for the school year, you can use the game. Make a note of this in your planning documentation and don’t forget to keep your game resources in a safe place until you get to this point in your teaching calendar.
After you have done this, consider the following questions and make a brief note of your answers:
- How valuable an experience was this for you in terms of working collaboratively with other teachers?
- What have you learnt about creating games from this exercise?
- What would you do differently next time?
- What impact do you expect this game to have on the quality or quantity of the revision of your target audience?
 Pause for thought Identify two techniques or strategies that you have learned in this unit that you might use in your classroom, and two ideas that you want to explore further. |
3 Games that need props