Recent posts for Urban Science
Former students of Urban Science make planning splash with proposal for a Central Park Airport
Just kidding.
A recent hoax, in which the Manhattan Airport Foundation proposed a new airport be built in Central Park, fooled both the Huffington Post and Inhabitat, a weblog about sustainable design.
Urban Science in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In November 2008, the Epistemic Games Research Group collaborated with the Milwaukee Public Schools’ Division of Recreation and Community Services to run a week-long Urban Science game. This version of urban Science was notably different from previous versions. In-game mentors, who in previous versions of the game had been physically present, guided students remotely, via instant messenger. Over a dozen students from Riverside University High School took on the role of urban planners. In an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Stanley A. Miller writes that, “The students had to consider issues such as affordable housing, parking, ecological issues and crime, while balancing the desires of special interest groups such as businesses, a cultural preservation organization and other community advocates.”
He also quotes epistemic games researcher Elizabeth Bagley, “There are tradeoffs and consequences, and these are things they need to deal with as a planner. They are learning how to really facilitate compromises because there are stakeholders whose goals don’t overlap.”
While the game facilitates collaboration and critical thinking, it also connects young people to the environment and to their neighborhoods. View the full article on the Journal Sentinel website, or a PDF here.
Maria revisited
I recently gave a guest lecture in an undergraduate teacher training course on campus. I spent 45 minutes talking about epistemic games, and specifically my work on Urban Science, and then answered questions from the 30 students. Not surprisingly, the students were interested in the demographics of epistemic game players, buying the games and implementing them in their classrooms, and curious about the long-term effects of epistemic gameplay on achievement. When I addressed the last topic, I told the story I previously wrote about here, the story about Maria’s social studies assignment and her creative solution to the task. In the middle of telling the story, one of the students emphatically raised her hand and shouted out, ‘Was that last year?’ I told her it was and the student went on to say, ‘I was in that class! I was observing that class and Maria’s assignment was phenomenal! I totally remember her work!’
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Epistemic Games Video
As researchers studying new media, it only seemed appropriate to let people know about our work using well, new media.
This short video gives an overview of our work on Urban Science and other epistemic games as part of the Macarthur Digital Media and Learning Project and the National Science Foundation.
In these games, players have a chance to learn 21st century skills by playing as urban planners, engineers, journalists, and other professionals in the knowledge economy.
I suppose next we’ll need to make an epistemic game about making epistemic games….
When people get in the way
Bagley, E.S., & Shaffer, D.W. (2009). When people get in the way: Promoting civic thinking through epistemic game play. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations. 1(1), 36-52.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/ijgcms-bagley-shaffer.pdf
