Discover Babylon General Information: Discover Babylon was developed as a joint effort by the Federation of American Scientists, Cuniform Digital Libratry Initiative, Walters Art Museum and Escape Hatch Entertainment for the Learning Technologies Project. It is available as a free download at www.supersmartgames.org or the Discover Babylon website at www.discoverbabylon.org/index.asp. The game's stated purpose is to expose players to "Mesopotamia's diverse contributions in writing, mathematics, literature, and law...". Discover Babylon is targeted at 8 -14 year olds and is only available for Windows operating systems. Game Structure: The game operates in a scavanger hunt format in which the player must navigate through time, accomplish tasks along the way and find a missing archaeologist. Throughout the journey, players accumulate points for information uncovered while on their quest to visit Mesopotamia's key cities - Ur, Uruk, Babylon, Nippur, and Nimrud. The game does address several of the objectives of the NC Standard Course of Study for World History. Discover Babylon is appropriate for middle school through high school students and even adults who desire to learn more about Mesopotamia. The game does meet the requirements for 21st Century Skills by requiring players to solve problems such as bartering for food and understanding of geography. Game Play: The game begins with the broadcast of an earthquake in Baltimore which was created by a time shift attributed to an archeaologist who has time traveled to the past. The player begins his quest in a museum. He must navigate his way through the museum to find hidden items that make time travel possible. Once these items have been found, the player time travels to Babylon and assumes the identity of a 12 year old boy. There he learns what life was like from schooling to aquiring food in the city market. After each phase of the time travel is complete, the player leaps through time again to a different city, assumes another identity(such as a 13 year old fisherman) and continues his quest to find Professor Dax in order to bring him back to the present. On each leg of the journey, the player can choose to explore his envirionment further or continue his search for Professor Dax. The game concludes when the Professor has been found. Additionaly, the amount of points the player earns is dependent upon how much information he gathers/learns during the various phases of time jumping from city to city. Game Critique: Discover Babylon is a resource that all social studies teachers can implement in their classrooms. Cost is not a concern since it is free. The game can be downloaded by students for play on their home computers as well. Discover Babylon is fantastic way to introduce students to ancient civilizations. Students will learn and understand more about Mesopotamia from this game then they ever could from reading a texbook or watching videos. The one drawback of the game is the amount of time required to download (approximately an hour). If a teacher is planning to utilize the game in her classroom, the download needs to be completed prior to the day of intended use. The next time I am scheduled to teach a World History Course, I will definately include this game in my unit/lesson plans. Posted by japrober ( Oct 01 2007, 12:44:18 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]