Play

===**Play: the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem solving **  ===
 * Will Wright on game creation: "In some sense, a game is nothing but a set of problems. We’re actually selling people problems for 40 bucks a pop....And the more interesting games in my opinion are the ones that have a larger solution space. In other words, there’s not one specific way to solve a puzzle, but, in fact, there’s an infinite range of solutions. ....The game world becomes an external artifact of the internal representation of the problem space."

Gaming activity: 
 * 1) Demands certain skills and practices, which had clear payoffs for academic subject
 * 2) Provides a scaffold, which motivated and shaped acquisition of other forms of school knowledge
 * 3) Helped develop self-awareness as a “learner”
 * When children are deep at play they engage with the **fierce, intense attention** that we’d like to see them apply to their schoolwork. Interestingly enough, no matter how intent and focused a child is at that play, maybe even grimly determined they may be at that game play, if you asked them afterwards, they will say that they were having fun. **So, the fun of game play is not non-stop mirth but rather the fun of engaging of attention that demands a lot of you and rewards that effort.** I think most good teachers believe that in the best moments, classroom learning can be the same kind of fun.
 *  Part of what makes play valuable as a mode of problem-solving and learning **is that it lowers the emotional stakes of failing**.


 * What Might Be Done **
 * Educators (in school and out) tap into play as a skill when they encourage free-form experimentation and open-ended speculation
 * Scenarios/hypotheticals as activities
 * Reality show challenges: a problem that requires creativity but with specific constraints (Project Runway, Top Chef, etc.)


 * Sample Games and Notes**

[|Blueprint] //Notes: Greenwood says "I'll be back to play this game in four weeks when school is over!" Geez, what kind of thinking is necessary? One might think back to the laws of physics and it also helps to be a spatial thinker or "someone who can picture directionally" Personally, considering how boring our physics teacher is, I think students would love this when learning and discussing the laws of motion.//

This game brings back old memories for me of when I had to visual spatial images. Specifically, a test designed by the Armed Services that had me imagine what a box would look like folded. I had a headache after that test and feel that I did abysmally. Age has been no kinder to me.

Notes: I like the problems solving required in this game. Interestingly, I think that science labs could be set up in this manner to reflect the interconnectivity of certain lab components.

[|Fantastic Contraption] //Notes://

[|Free Rice] //Notes:// Gwood says that this worthy vocabulary game calls on thinking that references prefixes and suffixes and Latin roots, etc. I think that this is a great game for SAT preparation as well as for general word knowledge. I plan to encourage this as a game for the students I have this summer in an English enrichment class.

[|GeoSense] //Notes: Geez! I need to go back to Geography class or spend some time perusing maps - which I actually like to do. This game calls on spatial skills and a good knowledge base of geography. I can see this appealing to our 7th grade students and teachers for map skills,etc.//

Nice game. It really makes you think when trying to identify places around the world. The only criticism I have of the game is that many regions are much to small to be able to distinguish one country from the next.

[|Grammar Bytes Exercises] //Notes: G'wood says "I have a similar site for my students to use for grammar review, but because it is a community college site, the site is overloaded with text and explanation, something that turns off many of my students. Chompchomp.com is definitely more engaging and visually appealing. I will look forward to sharing this with my students and seeing their reactions - especially the interactive " worksheets" on pronoun reference, agreement, and case. This game requires referencing grammar rules regarding pronoun usage, sentence structure, usage, etc. Students must also be able to differentiate between comma-splices and run-ons and know the requirements for an independent clause.//

**Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real world processes** 
  [|Third World Farmer]  <span style="font-size: 105.6%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Notes:// I like simulation games because they require an understanding of the way certain systems interact.
 * <span style="color: rgb(35, 31, 32); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(35, 31, 32); font-family: Univers-Bold;"> "Simulations expose players to powerful new ways of seeing the world and encourage them to engage in **a process of modeling**, which is central to the way modern science operates. Many contemporary games—Railroad Tycoon, for instance—i**ncorporate spreadsheets, maps, graphs and charts, which students must learn to use to play the game**. Students are thus motivated to move back and forth across this complex and integrated information system, acting on the simulated environment on the basis of information gleaned"
 * <span style="color: rgb(35, 31, 32); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students need to learn how to manipulate and interpret existing simulations and how to construct their own dynamic models of real world processes.

This game is fantastic. However, that being said, I did not last very long as a farmer. I believe I got ahead of myself and made large purchases before I had the capital to support those purchases. <span style="font-size: 132%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|The Redistricting Game] //Notes://

[|EdHeads Simulation Games] //Notes:// msw: try repairing the old guy's knee; it's truly amazing, once you get past the disgusting cutting-open part - euuwww. The game won't let you work on the wrong leg, either.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|How the Market Works] //Notes://

[|Hammurabi] //Notes://

[|Sim City] //Notes://

[|Telescopic Text] //Notes:// For me, this exercise would be great for students and their writing. Perhaps this could be a way for them to work on stylistic measures. I found this very thought provoking. Hi, mom!

[|Science Simulations] //Notes://

[|Math Simulations] //Notes://

[|Stop Disasters] //Notes://

A list of [|35 "change the world"-type games]...

<span style="font-size: 80%; color: rgb(35, 31, 32); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">