Peace Doves Game Name: Peace Doves Company: nobelprize.org; sponsored by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (largest financiers of research in Sweden) Stated Educational Uses: The game teaches children about the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970 and the countries who possess nuclear weapons. Target age for use: 15+ Cost: Free online game Platform: web based The purpose of Peace Doves is both educational and political. The game is educational in that students will learn more about the countries that possess nuclear weapons. Peace Doves gives the player key information about each country like how many nuclear weapons they have, rankings in comparison to other countries in number of weapons possessed, historical conflicts, and whether or not they are legally allowed to own nuclear weapons by the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970. The game is political in the sense that the dialogue between the doves makes the policy suggestion of halting and disarming the growth of nuclear weapons in the world. In regards to the NC Standard Course of Study, 9th graders are learning about world history and this game could be supplemented to fit into this curriculum. Ninth graders must understand and know the current state of world affairs and through this game; a student would know where each country stands in regards to nuclear weapons possession. I found the game was helpful in highlighting each country that owned a nuclear weapon and where that state was geographically located. Possible instructional value of the game would be to either test a student?s knowledge of geography and history in regards to nuclear weapons or an evaluation of what students learned during a lesson on world nuclear proliferation. This game is a test of base knowledge on current world affairs. This game allows for students to think about nuclear disarmament as an important political issue for world actors. Peace Doves, taking fifteen minutes to play is an easy and interesting game. Remembering which countries possess nuclear weapons and how many they have in comparison to one another could be hard for students to recall. This game highlights geography and further information for all the countries that possess the weapons. Peace Doves starts by calling into action eight doves to disarm countries that own nuclear weapons. A player is given at the bottom of the screen three boxes in which to pay attention to information. The first box is labeled Message on the Ring which dispatches information about the mystery nuclear armed country. A player then must make the judgment on which country the message is pertaining to. The second box is called Pick a Destination where a map of the world is displayed. When the cursor is moved over the countries of the world the countries that have nuclear weapons are highlighted. It is then up to the player to select the country that corresponds with the information given in the message. The last box labeled Activate a Peace Dove sends one out of the eight doves to the country chosen. The mission will be complete if the information is correct and failed if the information is incorrect. With a one player option, the game ends with a summary of the countries that were disarmed or still armed. I only failed to disarm France?s 500 nuclear weapons. At first I believed the game to be too simple for fifteen year olds but by playing I learned about the number of weapons, rankings, history, and geography of each nuclear armed country. The content of the game is definitely important given the current state of world affairs. Teachers could then introduce the potential emergence of Iran into this mix of nuclear weapon owning countries. I believe that this game would be a great way to supplement this discussion. The interactive map was a useful tool during the game. Content that might be surprising for students is that Turkey, Cuba, South Africa, Israel, and Pakistan all possess nuclear weapons and that Russia owns more weapons than the United States. Although teachers could just tell students this information, the facts presented by the game were much more engaging and visually stimulating. A student could potentially recall the information easier if they remember playing Peace Doves by visualizing the map or failing to disarm a certain country. Posted by rsbumgar ( Sep 30 2007, 10:42:07 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Jamestown Online Adventure Game Review Game Information: Jamestown Online Adventure is a free web-based game. The game takes place in the year 1606 and you are the captain of the Jamestown Colony. Your job is to set up the first permanent English colony in the New World. Jamestown Online Adventure is ideal for a U.S. History lesson, taught in fourth, or eighth grades. Bob Dunn is both the creator and flash programmer of Jamestown Online Adventure. Historyglobe.com brings you the game free of charge. Jamestown Online Adventure does require a Flash 7 or higher. Game Play: Jamestown Online Adventure makes you the captain of a new English colony. You are given a copy of the London Company?s instructions to help guide you. Your job is to maintain a successful colony based on four things: food, health, morale and wealth. Fellow colonists as well as Native Americans are there to help you. The format is question-based. You are asked a series of questions about where you want the ship to land, how to interact with the Native Americans, what type of town to build, who will work, what crops to plant, and what activities should gentlemen participate in. At the end of the game, you are given a report on the state of your colony based on how well you are producing food, how healthy your colonists are (ie. Are disease and starvation present), how much money you are making for the London Company, and how good of a leader you are to your colony. You even get to compare your colony to the actual Jamestown colony at the end. Only one person can play this game at a time. The game ends when you have answered all the questions. There are a total of six questions. In a recent game, I chose my colony to be set up in a marshy area. I built a village, instead of a wooden fort or castle. I had my men fishing and hunting, instead of searching for gold. All men worked. I planted tobacco, wheat, and corn. In the end, my score report stated that I had good food sources, poor health, good wealth, and a fair morale. My colonists were not too happy with my decision to trade with the Indians, and to make all men work. Game Structure and Teaching: Jamestown Online Adventure is an educational U.S. history game. This game would be ideal for a fourth or eighth grade social studies classroom. While it does not deal directly to North Carolina, it does describe the settlement of an English colony. The game is very short, perfect for an introductory lesson into the colonies. Specifically, the eighth grade NCSCoS refers to the roles and contributions of Native Americans on colonies. Jamestown Online Adventure directly refers to Native Americans in some questions. You also have the opportunity to ask for a Native American?s advice with what type of structures to build and what crops to plant. Indirectly, this game gives students the opportunity to see what it was like to live back then when there was little settlement. The game illustrates the notion that the luxuries we have today were not available. The colonists truly had to live off the land. Jamestown Online Adventure does incorporate some of the 21st learning skills. However, the critical thinking one must utilize in this game is far less than in other games I have reviewed. The player must answer questions about his colony. However, the possible answers are already given. You do not get to see the direct impact your answer has on the colony until the very end of the game. Thus, the player is not forced to react to a positive or negative decision. Critique: Jamestown Online Adventure is truly an educational game. It takes only five to ten minutes to complete. It would serve as a perfect introduction to the English colonies. I think the game would really engage students and get them to thinking about what life was like when the English were settling in the U.S. This game could only be used efficiently in a North Carolina or U.S. History course when students are studying Native Americans and the New World. Honestly, I was a little disappointed with this game. I thought there would be more action, and I would actually get to see the impact my decisions had on my colony. There is no room for creativity as you are already given a choice of answers to the questions. On the upside, Jamestown Online Adventure does an excellent job of imitating life in the early 1600s. The sound effects and graphics are well done. The game also illustrates that life in the early 1600s was extremely hard. A colonist had to work very hard just to stay alive. Posted by slcarte2 ( Sep 30 2007, 08:07:33 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [11]

Scribble States SCRIBBLE STATES Scribble States is a game that revolves around the geography of the United States. There are three versions of the game. In one, the player must draw and then recognize one of the fifty states, in another draw and be able to name the capital of the state, and in the third draw and know the state nickname. Players can choose to answer 10, 20 or 30 questions per quiz. The cost of the game is free, and is available online at www.addictinggames.com/scribblestates.html GAME PLAY: The player has a ?pencil? that is controlled by the mouse. Using the pencil, the player must connect a series of dots that will recreate one of the fifty states. At the bottom of the page, a grade for the drawing is given; as the drawing progresses, the point value goes down according to how many mistakes and/or misdrawn lines are made. Once the drawing is completed, a multiple choice question appears asking the player to identify the state that was just drawn. Again using the pencil, the player must bubble in the answer. Points are deducted from the quiz part of the player?s score based on the amount of time it took the player to choose the correct answer from the given list. At the end of the game the player is given an overall grade average for all of the drawings and quiz answers. STRUCTURE AND TEACHING: Purpose: educational. Possible instructional uses: enrichment activity/independent study activity to help with memorization of US geography. The game also provides practice using a computer mouse to create the drawings, which promotes motor skill use and development. CRITIQUE The game can be played quickly if the player recognizes all of the states he/she has just drawn. That may depend on how adept the person is at using the mouse to follow the dot-to-to pattern to make the drawing clear enough to recognize the state. When I played I could not figure out what a perfect drawing would look like. I tried going very slow and drawing precisely, but the grade I received for those drawings was not more than a point or two different from the ones where I drew rather quickly and the state outline looked a bit messy. I also had difficulty figuring out how fast was fast enough to answer the question to get a score higher than the low 90s. The timer apparently started the second the question flashed on the screen, and the value declined quickly. Even on the states I recognized immediately I never got a score higher than a 94. Either I took too long to answer the question, or I took to long to bubble in the answer so the computer could read it. At the end of my game, my average drawing scores were 84 and the question score average was 93. Even though I did not miss any question, my overall grade was only a B. The game might best be used as a refresher for a geography unit for elementary school students, or as time filler for middle school students. Posted by emartin2 ( Sep 30 2007, 04:01:29 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]