Atlantis Remixed: Using a Game-Based Curriculum to Achieve Academic Success

Atlantis Remixed: Using a Game-Based Curriculum to Achieve Academic Success Using a Game Based Curriculum to Achieve Academic Success The purpose of this grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to examine whether and how we might successfully invite students who normally opt out of traditional forms of academic engagement to engage deeply with key forms of literacy in mathematics, science, and language arts. Specifically, this grant is concerned with supporting students development of disciplinary competencies and critical literacy skills through the context of a game-based curriculum that allows students to take on the role of protagonists who interrogate game-based fictional storylines and gather evidence to build persuasive arguments that have the potential to change the virtual world. Although much of the work to be done will cut across and be in support of multiple outcomes, for the sake of clarity the grant is structured to support six outcomes. While a core focus of this unit is on improving, researching, and disseminating three game-based curricular units and research on their implementation, we will also be developing professional development supports to produce more effective teachers who are prepared to implement such innovative curricula. In a similar vein, lessons learned will be specific to these units, but the research will be conducted so that the implications inform others on the challenges and opportunities of learning with videogames and in immersive contexts more generally. Lastly, a core focus of this grant will be to transition from the research-based Quest Atlantis product to a new offering titled Atlantis Remixed that leverages research lessons from prior work, an understanding of technical advancements, clarification of core pedagogical assumptions, and an understanding of market potential to produce a commercially viable product. More generally, brief overviews of the six outcomes are below.