This is the first actvity towards earning your Game Master Badge.
This link will lead you right to the post. Please add your comment under "comment section" and not under "review section" in order to achieve your badge.
Enjoy playing.
Game-Based Learning in the Past
Activity 1: Play Lemonade Stand, Lemmings or Math Blaster Plus
Please choose one of the following games to play (the game may take a few minutes to load-please be patient):
Once you’ve played it for a while, please answer the following questions:
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Please describe your experience playing this game. (Include information about ease of use, graphics, are instructions easy to follow, what age group is it appropriate for, etc.), and
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Would you use this game in a classroom setting? Why?
Created in 1973 and brought to the Apple II platform in 1979, Lemonade Stand is one of the oldest and most popular educational games of all time. Gameplay is deceptively simple: players run a lemonade stand, choosing the amount of ingredients to buy, how to advertise, and what to price lemonade. All of these choices, as well as uncontrollable factors like weather, play into how much profit the lemonade stand turns. Despite a basic premise, the game was actually teaching players complex lessons about business and economics and was one of the earliest to use a gaming platform to do so. Lemonade Stand, and others early economics-based games like M.U.L.E., would inspire a large number of future games including Lemonade Empire, Lemonade Tycoon, Hot Dog Stand, and even the school-inappropriate-but-still-educational Dope Wars to name a few.
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Lemmings is another seminal title that wasn’t really intended to be educational but is actually a great tool for teaching kids about planning, problem solving, and creative thinking. The first version of the now famous game was released in 1991, becoming an instant success and one of the best selling computer games of its time. To advance, players must successfully guide a group of lemmings through a danger-filled setting using selected skills that alter the landscape. It isn’t always easy, and the challenge often keeps players trying for hours to get it right. While the original came out more than 20 years ago, versions of the game were released as recently as 2010.
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Just as munching added a fun element to math lessons, so did blasting. In fact, this popular concept yielded numerous later iterations, allowing students to blast everything from algebra to reading. Like Number Munchers, Math Blaster helped turn boring math exercises into something students could look forward to, helping change the educational gaming scene for the better. The Blaster series of games was incredibly successful and it’s easy to find variations on the theme today that cover a wide range of topics and grade levels.
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