White papers
An enterprise simulation platform for education:
Building a world game for pre-college students with Microsoft ESP
Exhibit 7: National science standards and the Global Challenge World Game
The Global Challenge World Game targets a specific set of knowledge and skills within the National Science Education Standards (NAS 1995). These skill sets are largely enumerated in the standards that emphasize the development of inquiry skills and collaborative research and problem-solving skills.
Inquiry skills
Students playing the World Game will:
• Frequently be involved in actively exploring a model of the natural world using tools and processes similar to those used by working scientists (Content Standard A & D and Inquiry Standard 2 & 4).
• Fake time for exploring, making observations, taking wrong turns, testing ideas, doing things over again, asking, reading, and discovering (Teaching Standard A & D and Inquiry Standard 5).
• Link basic scientific concepts to personal and societal issues (Content Standard F & G and Inquiry Standard 5).
• Apply what they learn to answer new questions (Content Standard G and Inquiry Standard 4).
• Reflect on their knowledge and learning (Content Standard G and Inquiry Standard 4).
• Confront their preconceptions and misconceptions about how the natural world works, compare these with what they glean from books and hands-on experiments, and then discuss discrepancies among themselves and with teachers (Standards E & G and Inquiry Standard 5).
Collaborative research and problem-solving skills
Students playing the World Game will:
• Identify new problems or needs and propose designs and alternative solutions that change and potentially improve current technological designs (Content Standard E and Inquiry Standard 5).
• Learn to value peer review, truthful reporting about the methods and outcomes of investigations, and making the results of their work public (Content Standard G and Inquiry Standard 5).
Reference
NAS. 1995. National Science Education Standards. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/ (accessed May 27, 2008).
Return to top
