How many players do you think that Whyville has?
Over 1.2 million, players age are from 8 to 16, the average is 12.3 years old, and 68% players are girls. Each day, about 14,000 players log in Whyville and spent from 5 minutes to more than 5 hours within it. In Whyville, players can design their own faces, chat with other players, and play different type of science games. In fact, over 10,000 sciences activities will happen in a regular day.
Above is the map of Whyville, "citizens" there can visit any place they want by clicking the icon. Let me take Spin Lab for example.
The girl on the left corner is my avatar. :)
This is what the lab inside looks like. When I click the nose icon, the reminder comes out, suggest players reading the lab manual first.
The manual has listed all the activity users can play in Spin Lab. For each activity, it provides a brief description, including the question (How does a skater get spinning so fast?) and the background information.
Here is the screenshot of the game Skater Simulation.
Player can place the skater's arm and leg by clicking the color dots on her joint and dragging her limps to a new position. But if player moves her to a unstable position, the skater would fall down. The skater's speeding change can be observed through the simulation on the right.
Single-player games like this is only a part of the Whyville, but it is an important part, by which I mean, players build their own salary most by playing these games. As you may have noticed, my avatar has not had a nose! If I want a fancy nose, I need to buy them in Face factory. So, I think now you might have the idea about what drives players to play science games!
How cool! This is especially interesting to me because I'm an ice skater. At my undergrad university, we actually ran real simulations quite similar to the one in the game.
ReplyDeleteSo cool you are a ice skater! It is very hard for me to keep balance on ice! I can not even move a bit! I like this simulation too, it visualizes the changing, which could give student a directly impression about these physics concept.
DeleteFirst off I want to say thank you for all of the visuals you always add in your blog, they help me a lot!
ReplyDeleteSecond, this is so cute and interesting. While it may seem like you're just playing a game it can help you with a lot of real life connections such as managing money, and reading and literacy.
You are welcome!
DeleteI think what you pointed out is the reason why this virtual world is so popular among children. It does a good job on combing learning and fun together.
This might sound nerdy, coming from a male graduate student, but I would definetely play this game. Well, not really.. but it would be pretty cool to play this when I was younger. It looks like a really effective interactive educational tool for kids of all ages to play and learn from. Kids are always on electronical devices (computers, ipods, cellphones, Kindles, etc...); so this is a great way to educate them while they use these electronic devices.
ReplyDeleteGreat job with the visuals in your post as well!!
-Ricky
When I wrote this blog, I played it for a while. Everybody loves games! Although the cartoon are not as fancy as other commercial games, Whyville is still a good example about how to use children's enthusiasm about technology devices for learning.
DeleteWhat a great way to learn concepts and skills related to science. In my blog on e-learning I often come across articles on adding games to learning. It just creates an interest that text and illustrations can not do!! I also enjoy seeing your visuals! I need to learn how to take screen shots...is that what you are doing here for your blogs?
ReplyDelete