A TechCHAT with Filament Games’ Dan Norton on “Planet Mechanic”

Dan Norton, cofounder and Chief Creative Officer at Filament Games, helps design educational app-based games centered around K-12 learning objectives. Norton recently discussed their new game, “Planet Mechanic” (available for both Apple and Android devices), with EdWorld.

The game allows students to control their own galaxy while they assist an alien species in finding suitable living conditions for their own planet. Students can manipulate just about every environmental condition that factors into the planet’s functioning, adding an all-too-relevant perspective on the realities of environmental change and natural sciences.

He also discussed EdTech adoption, Common Core, and the company’s goals.

How is Filament Games using game-based mechanics to encourage EdTech utilization for core learning objectives?

Our approach to encouraging EdTech adoption is at the core of our game design practice. We take learning objectives as the seed for a game concept, and building game mechanics around those learning objectives, drawing on our ten years of experience as a studio that exclusively creates games for learning. Each of the titles offered in our store, including “Planet Mechanic”, was designed with this classroom-first mentality. We also offer professional development courses that help teachers get acquainted with models for implementing games in the classroom.

What reward system is in place, and can it be sustained throughout the year?

In terms of rewards and progress feedback, our games are integrated into robust reporting dashboards that are available at classroom, school, and district levels - students get a sense of progression through these dashboards, while teachers get helpful insights into where students might be stuck.

Are any Common Core Standards met within games such as Planet Mechanic?

Regarding Common Core standards, “Planet Mechanic” is actually aligned to specific cross-cutting ELA and literacy standards, which focus on procedural experimentation and mastering domain-specific terminology in a scientific or technical context. We've also aligned to Next Generation Science Standards, Benchmarks for Science Literacy, and regional standards such as the Texas TEKS when needed. It's important to us that we help teachers satisfy the standards to which they're now held accountable, so we bake that into our product design.

What makes "Planet Mechanic" useful to a K-12 educator? How does it benefit students? What grade levels is it best suited for?

What's great about “Planet Mechanic” is that it helps students understand the behavior of a sun, earth and moon system in an accessible way. The sheer magnitude of these planetary processes can be difficult to imagine, and “Planet Mechanic” offers students a way to not only see these processes in action, but also manipulate them so they can see the ground-level impact of those processes. For instance, in one level, players are tasked with creating a tidal system on the planet in the game, and must add an orbiting moon in order to generate waves so the planet’s alien population can go surfing! Through this kind of cause-and-effect interaction, players gain a deep understanding of the planetary system.

Games offered at Filament Learning are targeted at a variety of age levels and content areas, but “Planet Mechanic” content is best used by students in middle school. The NGSS and Common Core standards we’ve aligned to are at the middle school level, and we’ve found that this is the sweet spot for the game’s content and complexity.

How can educators illustrate the importance of space exploration and its associated discoveries with Planet Mechanic? What scientific concepts do students stand to absorb, and how can this tool ignite a passion for science?

Space exploration deepens our understanding of space and Earthly scientific concepts. Without studying interplanetary conditions, our models of the solar system would be grossly inaccurate, and Planet Mechanic is effectively a model of the sun, earth, and moon system that our species inhabits. This model can be used to explore the planet’s core attributes, allowing students to manipulate atmosphere, tilt, rotation, and lunar cycles to learn how these factors change temperature, time, and seasons. The unique vantage point offered by the game will illustrate to students that many of the conditions in their daily lives are created by processes that are almost incomprehensibly large in magnitude, and I think that’s a powerful realization.

Article by Jason Papallo, Education World Social Media Editor

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