Educational Gaming Commons - Press Start

Read the attached pages for updates on projects in progress and downloads of completed projects.

Current Projects

• 2009 EGC Engagement Initiatives
  • ChemBlaster - Mary Shoemaker
  • Typo - Bim Angst
  • SimHealth - Mark Sciegaj
• Educational Gaming Library - While there are numerous websites devoted to online flash games, no one offers a comprehensive library of educational flash games.  The EGC is solving this problem by creating a free library here at gaming.psu.edu.  All visitors are encouraged to browse the library, which can be found at http://gaming.psu.edu/library.  Once completed, teachers, professors, and instructors of all disciplines will be able to find free, online games that they can use to supplement their lessons.
• Health Policy Administration - Beginning Fall 2009, students in Professor Mark Sciegaj's HPA 101 classes will be using the commercial game SimHealth to simulate the effects of changes to national healthcare policy.  Since discovering an education consortium in California has been using this game for years, Mark has been trying to determine the best way to incorporate SimHealth into his curriculum.  With the help of the EGC, SimHealth will be entering Penn State classrooms to offer students a new method of learning.
   
• Architectural Engineering - We are currently working with John Messner from the Architectural Engineering on a project to teach students key principles in managing large construction projects.  Students act as project managers, managing a virtual team and a virtual worksite in a 3D, game-like environment.

• Music Education - Staff from our Education Gaming Commons team have been working with Dr. Ann Clements and Dr. Tom Cody (School of Music) on a way to incorporate Guitar Hero World Tour into a section of Music 112 (Into Guitar Techniques). The result of this collaboration is a 3 week Guitar Hero project in which the class is divided into teams and tasked with using the in game music composer to play and record a simple song. Not only should the song be proof of some of the information learned in class, but it should also be structured in such a way that it can be used as an instructional tool for future students. In addition to their playable Guitar Hero song, each team will also be required to develop a learning plan on how, as a music teacher (a job many of them will go on to take), such a tool could be used in the classroom.

  At the beginning of the project, a short survey was given to all students and each Guitar Hero class session (as well as optional, after class Guitar Hero tutorial sessions) are being recorded as a part of a research agenda associated with the project. Assuming all goes well, the hope is to develop the project into a larger part of the course in the Fall, as well as potentially expanding it into the more advanced guitar techniques courses. The head of the music composition program, Paul Barsom, has also expressed interest in possibly incorporating the music games into his class in the future.

  • Findings presented at:
    • Eastern Music Educators National Convention (March 2009)
    • Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology (April 2009)
    • Mountain Lake Colloquium for Teachers of General Music Methods (May 2009)
    • Games Learning and Society Conference (June 2009)
• EcoRacer. For more information, check out our EcoRacer game page.
  • Findings presented at:
    • National Engineers Week Speaker Series at Penn State Great Valley (Feb 2009)
    • American Society for Engineering Education Conference (June 2009)
• CSI - In the world of forensic investigation, mistakes can have dire consiquences.  Thankfully video games are an environment perfectly suited for learning from your mistakes.  By working with Dr. Bob Shaler and Tess Crossen from  Penn State's Eberly College of Science, we hope to create an engaging game environment where both resident and online students can practice their forensics skills and learn valuable techniques in crime scene investigation.
• Virtual Pig - Raising an animal through 4H can help develop a wide array of valuable life skills in children of all ages, in addition to creating a unique and personal means by which to learn about agriculture.  But some children - for example those who live in urban enviroments or those with disabilities - may not have the same opportunities to participate in the 4H program as others.  Enter Virtual Pig - a game designed to bring the lessons of 4H to everyone!

Virtual Worlds Luncheons

Each month we try and schedule a virtual worlds luncheon to take a look at a specific virtual world.  In the past, we have examined Second Life, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, ProtoSphere and Warhammer.  Demonstrations usually take 20-30 minutes, followed by informal discussions around various aspects of the virtual world.  Penn State faculty, staff and students are all welcome.  In the past, we've had attendees from Comparative Literature, Linguistics, IST, Sociology, Psychology and several other disciplines which leads to very engaging discussions.

EGC Games