Game Testing w/NYSCI
Don LaBonte
The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) is bringing the museum to you! But we also need your help. Just over two years ago, NYSCI and Design I/O launched a free video game, known as the Pack, that combined nature and coding to help inhabitants of the fictional world of Algos to thrive in a land where food and water are scarce.
The Pack is a multi-year project that plans to make this exciting and immersive digital game and supplemental curricular activities more widely available to NYC schools as a fun way to introduce students to computational thinking --the critical thinking skills involved in formulating a problem and expressing its solution for computers (human or machine) to effectively carry out.
This fall, NYSCI is looking for educators of 4th-9th graders who could help us test out materials and game supports and enlist their children to become official NYSCI game testers!
FOR EDUCATORS ONLY (1-2 HOUR COMMITMENT):Participate in a short introductory zoom or phone session to learn about the game
Provide feedback on materials and resources being created for teachers to support the teaching of computational thinking via zoom focus groups, interviews, or brief feedback forms
Enlist children in grades 4-9 to become official Pack game testers and encourage them to download and play the game through
Test out challenges and activities being created at NYSCI with your students
Have children complete game play journals or other activity sheets provided by the project and share with the NYSCI team
Have students complete surveys on computational thinking
Participate in a zoom discussion session at the end of their experience to provide feedback
We would love to have you join us during this pilot phase to inform the design of our final materials. You and your organization or school will be credited for your contribution in our final curriculum and game play guides that will be widely distributed ih NYC public schools and beyond. Interested? Please feel free to reach out to nhar...@nysci.org to get involved.
The game is a free download in the Apple Store for iOS, Mac and PC. Download the Pack here!