About the Game
In SimCityEDU, students play the role of mayor, doing the challenging work of addressing environmental impact while balancing the employment needs and the happiness of the city’s residents. The game not only teaches students about the factors affecting the environment in a modern city, but also provides formative assessment information about students’ ability to problem solve and explain the relationships in complex systems.
My contributions
* Created top ranked learning design for SimCityEDU, an educational video (mod)game, that Common Sense Media calls a "Really engaging, great learning approach."
* Authored in-game and dashboard messages (e.g., pop-ups, hints, game summaries). Texts are lexile matched to target demographics (i.e., middle school) and user(play)-tested with kids.
* Balanced the various game mechanics (e.g., cost of a power plant vs. power production rate) to not only fit the time frame of a single 45-minutes class, but also to match the learning goals (e.g., environmental sciences & Common Core State Standards).
* Created user(play)-test protocol that allowed documentation and tracking of qualitative and quantitative feedback from play sessions.
* Used game mechanics (i.e., bar charts, informational texts) to align the learning objectives to middle-school Common Core State Standards (Math & ELA stardards), Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) of Human Impact, and overarching 21st Century Skills (Systems Thinking).
* Designed leveled in-game feedback system. Feedback can be indirect (e.g., blinking icon without explanation) or direct (e.g., advisor text pop-up), depending on the player's progress.
* Designed end-game achievement system (i.e., silver medal) corresponding to learning/game objectives. This feature directly translates from the game to the dashboard, and connects the game actions to the learning progression in systems thinking.
