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Martian Boneyards (0 comments)
Play Game >> Brief Description
Martian Boneyards is a game of scientific collaboration and problem-solving in the new, spectacular, high definition massively-multiplayer online environment (MMO) called Blue Mars. EdGE@TERC and VSE have teamed together to bring expertise in innovative science education and state-of-the-art MMO gaming technologies to create an unprecedented opportunity for scientific knowledge building.
Release Date May 10, 2010Developer EdGE@TERC and VSE
Project Lead Jodi Asbell-Clarke, EdGE@TERC
Press Coverage Press Release URL
www.edgearcadia.com
Full Description
The Educational Gaming Environments group at TERC (EdGE@TERC) and Virtual Space Entertainment (VSE) present Martian Boneyards—a game of scientific mystery and collaboration in the spectacular new high-definition massively-multiplayer online environment (MMO) Blue Mars.
Martian Boneyards is the first EdGE and VSE game in Arcadia—a region of Blue Mars dedicated to scientific gaming, exploration, and discovery. In this the kick-off to an unfolding story, bones and other artifacts have been found in the outskirts of Arcadia, and players try to solve the mysteries about what has happened there. They hunt for artifacts in the field—a rich, beautiful landscape for exploration—compare, sort, and try to identify those artifacts in a re-opened Science Center (that has an uncertain and intriguing past), and build and revise evidence-based theories. Martian Boneyards raises many questions that require scientific investigation, and rewards players for participating in various phases of scientific investigation—exploration, data gathering, analysis, and theory building. Using the data sharing tools in the science center along with the ideas of the entire community, players try to solve the mysteries of the boneyards.
EdGE and VSE are striving to create experiences where people of all ages choose to go spend their personal time and engage them in playing games based on scientific understandings and skills. Tools and resources allow players to explore roles and develop behaviors and skills for professions in such science-related fields as forensics, genetic engineering, anatomy, anthropology, bioinformatics, and even scientist entrepreneur. Players are rewarded for learning and using skills to make theoretical and applicable discoveries, enabling them to advance career-wise within the game—gaining in-world status as well as expertise in the STEM content and with data visualization and analysis, communication, and collaboration technologies—all while they attempt to solve the mysteries of the Martian Boneyards.
Purpose
The goal of the work is to capture the spirit of social media that is revolutionizing youth culture (Castronova, 2007; Ito et al., 2008) and use it to foster interest in science and scientific careers among players, including those who may be disengaged with traditional educational experiences.
Today’s schools are failing STEM learners and threaten the existence of a workforce of STEM innovators for the future (Wagner, 2008; U.S. Dept of Labor, 2007). EdGE, a team of developers and researchers at TERC, is looking beyond today’s schools to envision a decade into the future—thinking ahead to new learning environments and informing formal and informal educators of what can be when learners re-engage in STEM learning on their own terms (Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009).
Today, youth complain they must “power down” in school¬–there is a disconnect between education and their everyday lives (Puttnam, 2007). Nearly all U.S. youth (boys and girls) play digital games, many supported by social networking or MMOs (Lenhart, 2008; Ito et al., 2008). Martian Boneyards goes to where today’s youth are—in MMOs—and immerses them in meaningful science collaboration learning opportunities that attract them to science learning and careers.
Virtual environments show tremendous potential to transform STEM learning (NSF, 2008; Barab et al., 2005; Ketelhut, 2007; Steinkeuhler & Duncan, 2008). Virtual games can be richly complex and engaging learning environments (Gee, 2003; Barab et al., 2007) and successful game play can be nontrivial, including the building of new roles and identities (Gee, 2003; Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006). Virtual games have shown to foster collaborative problem-solving (Steinkuehler & Chmiel, 2006) and systemic thinking (Squire, 2003), and to increase players’ collaborative behavior and civic activity in real life (Ito et al., 2008; Barab et al., 2005; Lenhart, 2008; Barab et al., 2005).
MetricsHow are you measuring results?
EdGE research (funded by NSF/DRL/ISE # 0917520) is examining who plays Martian Boneyards, to what extent they collaborate, to what extent they build quality scientific knowledge together, as well as other related questions. EdGE researchers use a four-phase model to study scientific collaboration in Martian Boneyards. The phases include exploration, data gathering, analysis, and theory-building. Researchers use netnographic methods or virtual ethnography (Kozinets, 2002; Hine, 2000) for the analysis of logs of avatar motions and communications, coding the logs for four phases of collaboration which are readily apparent from the tools they are using within the game. Participant observers immerse themselves within the game, participating in the community and recording their observations for several three-hour events per week. Surveys, interviews, avatar activity logs, sample user-generated artifacts, and communication transcripts are used together to create a rich picture of the extent and nature of scientific collaboration in the game experience.
What outcomes have been measured?
The game will launch in May 2010 and the research will begin.
Non-Profit involved: yes
Funding Sources: NSF/DRL/ISE #0917520
Sponsors/In-kind donations: much sweat equity on part of development team
Budget
Overall: 687,000
Secured: 687,000
Game Tags
science, Blue Mars, learning, education, MMO, collaboration
Where you can play this game It will be released in the MMO, Blue Mars, on May 10. MMO can be downloaded at http://www.bluemarsonline.com
Contacts
General Sherry Soares, edge@terc.edu
Press Ken Mayer, ken_mayer@terc.edu
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