Kinesthetic-Based Educational Games GeoMoto and Pangean
Los Angeles, CA (USA), October 2015 - Staying true to its mission, GameDesk has released two new and novel interactive gaming titles for education for the IOS, Android, and Leap Controller/PC platforms. GeoMoto and Pangean are embodied learning experiences allowing players to learn through direction and movement-creating geographic features by pulling, smashing, and grinding tectonic plates and moving entire continents.
Since its launch in 2011, GameDesk has developed some of the most innovative learning games, platforms, and experiential school curriculum available today, including its flagship social-emotional title, Dojo, and interactive learning platform Educade.org. GeoMoto and Pangean emerged out of research, development, and performance testing supported by The National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Science, the Betty Moore Foundation, as well as the Science and Entertainment Exchange. Working in collaboration with content experts from Bill Nye the Science Guy, LucasArts, Cal Tech's Tectonics Observatory, and Boston University, GameDesk merged its assessment-driven, game-based learning-design practices to foster deep conceptual learning of various geosciences subjects.
GeoMoto, which is now currently available in the Apple App and Android Stores for $4.99, invites players to navigate a planet devoid of geographic features. Students are challenged to complete objectives by inducing movement of tectonic plates, forming mountains, valleys, and volcanoes in the process. The interactive, animation-based learning experience allows students to physically move tectonic plates and observe as a landscape forms on the planet's surface.
Pangean is a didactic puzzle game introducing the geological concept of continental drift. As galactic members of the United Colonies, players travel the universe in their own scouting ship, using a hologram interface to piece together continents and demonstrate the shift that occurs over 100 million years. Initial levels challenge players to simply move and rotate landmasses, but as the difficulty increases, players are armed with advanced tools helping them complete their final mission of returning present-day Earth to its Pangean state.
By leveraging the touch screen of a tablet, GeoMoto and Pangean link students' tactical actions to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, resulting in profound understanding and retention of complex material. GameDesk originally developed and released game prototypes working with the leap motion controller, which allowed students to use their hand gestures to kinesthetically learn the science concepts. Research and implementation as well as pre-post data on student learning are detailed in their newly released white paper.
"During our strategy and development phases of creating any game, we ask ourselves, 'Will this change the way students learn?' We feel GeoMoto and Pangean further our commitment to providing new, interactive learning opportunities, ensuring students are making the right connections," said GameDesk's CEO and Founder Lucien Vattel.
GameDesk's mission, Vattel added, is "to provide immersive learning activities for students through gaming and simulation in a native 21st-century learning environment, with the mindset that learning and fun are not mutually exclusive." GeoMoto and Pangean embody this mission completely, combining kinesthetic activities, hands-on experience, and immersive learning with engaging, rigorous content.
