Video games are usually a student’s self-reward for sitting through a day at school. But what if video games were actually part of a regular day at school?
Immune Attack is one such video game. Middle and high school students try to fix a teenager’s immunodeficiency by piloting a nanobot through his body and teaching his immune system how to fight off a bacterial infection. In the process, they gain knowledge of cell biology and molecular science.
The game started as the brainchild of Melanie Stegman and Michelle Fox, scientists at Federation of American Scientists’ Learning Technologies Program. Using grant money from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Stegman and Fox collaborated with immunologists from Brown University and graphic artists from University of Southern California to create the video game. They then collected a panel of scientists to peer review each “mission” in the game and have called for teachers’ help in evaluating Immune Attack in their classrooms. Five hundred teachers have signed up so far, and, moreover, 9,000 people have downloaded the video game.
Immune Attack is a more effective teaching tool than lecturing about immunology for several reasons. For one thing, because students are trying to beat the game, they actively engage in obtaining and retaining information that will help them accomplish that goal, as opposed to sitting passively through a lecture. Furthermore, having a goal (i.e. to beat the game) keeps students focused on the immunology information for longer than they would listen to it in a lecture.
Download the game and start fighting bacteria!
Read more about the effectiveness of Immune Attack in the ASCB 2009 Press Book.
Check out two other science-related educational video games, Re-Mission and Didget.
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