Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting

Friday, Nov 20, 2020, 12:40pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:  Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Christina Colon (KCC BIO), Amy Haas (KCC ENG), Anna Karpathakis (KCC BEH), Lorraine LaPrade (KCC LIBR), Kathleen Offenholley (BMCC MAT), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Michael Ortiz (KCC BEH)

Meeting began at 12:40pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone.
2. Grace discussed her Escape Room for Microbiology and how her students enjoyed it and learned micro at the same time.
3. Kathleen shared that she did a Kahoot! with her class and had a good experience. It was more of a lesson and less like a quiz.  Because it was a game, students paid attention to why they got something wrong.  She did it live.  The students are begging her for games.
4. Grace shared “Sets”, where you must categorize things.
5. Christina shared that she uses a game where the students are put into the role of fisherman. When the student is the fisherman, their mindset changes, and they deplete the ocean before the game ends.  They do not realize what they are doing when they are doing it.  Christina asked if there is a way for students to be in breakout groups to do this.  It was mentioned that if they had a Google Doc, they may be able to do this.  Grace googled over-fishing, and the Cloud Institute came up (but it runs on Adobe Flash, which will soon no longer be supported).  Role playing can be a real eye opener for students. Grace mentioned going over HTML5 next semester as a possible replacement for Adobe Flash.  There is no easy solution.
6. Michael shared using Goldfish snacks in class and learning patience.
7. Christina shared she likes to give students activities to do that they can do with their families. These can provide new learning opportunities for all ages.
8. Grace has her students play at home. She asks them what happened and has them share out.
9. Kathleen shared how a friend of hers uses Monopoly to teach about inequality.  Christina mentioned an SNL skit on Monopoly.
10. Grace shared that we can modify a game for our lessons. We can also rig a game to demo a concept (ex. bankruptcy to demo inequality). We can also use roles to solve problems (ex. Medical Clinic with the professor as the patient and the students play the roles to diagnose and treat).  Discussion followed.
11. Kathleen shared a game: https://www.setgame.com/set/puzzle . It is a challenging daily puzzle that tells you why you are wrong. It is collaborative.  She did a demo.  Some of us tried it.
12. Another related game was mentioned: Google Sets with Friends. This one does not tell you why you are wrong. Start with easy games.  “Brain Warm Ups”
13. Grace shared labeling games: purposegames.com . She demoed with a motor neuron. It is timed and a good warm-up.  She also showed one with the carbon-oxygen cycle.  This is like the “Do Now” exercises we did in high school.
14. Michael shared using Jeopardy in class.
15. Grace mentioned this is the last meeting for this semester and asked about interests for Spring 2021. She will gather resources in the winter. Christina asked for more focus on games that teach things we cannot learn otherwise.  We also talked about making an Escape Room tutorial and learning by doing.
16. Kathleen mentioned that the CUNY Games may do something over the winter. Join the CUNY Games Network by going on the CUNY Commons to find and join it. The CUNY Games Conferences were discussed (they are great; “What’s Your Game Plan?” – a game to learn how to make games by Joe Bisz, who is planning to do this online – should be interesting)
17. A library in Pennsylvania has a Hogwarts Escape Room (it is Google Docs based).
18. Everyone thanked Grace for facilitating this FIG.
19. Grace will send out the end of semester survey. Please fill it out and return.
20. Meeting ended at 1:40pm.

Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz, KCC Bio

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting

Friday, Oct 30, 2020, 12:40pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:    Kelly Amoroso (KCC CTR ECON WKFRC DEV), Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Christina Colon (KCC BIO), Amy Haas (KCC ENG), Daniel Kane (KCC TAT), Anna Karpathakis (KCC BEH), Lorraine LaPrade (KCC LIBR), Tom Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO), Kathleen Offenholley (BMCC MAT), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Michael Ortiz (KCC BEH)

Meeting began at 12:40pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone.
2. It was mentioned that soon Adobe will no longer be supporting Flash as of 01/2021. Some online simulations and games may no longer work.
3. Grace shared “What if” that she does on Discussion Board using joints. Students have a joint, say how it moves and what it does.  Then they have to say how it would be affected if the joint were changed.  Example: Ball and socket joint à hinge joint.  She also uses this with skin: find a product at home, state its claim, and state if you think the claim is valid and why.
4. Kelly introduced herself and shared that she is looking for ideas to keep groups engaged in her accounting class.
5. Grace was requested to and did show everyone Kahoot. There is a free basic option, or you can pay a fee for the deluxe version.  The cost to students is $0.  Grace shared her screen with Kahoot.  She has done this synchronously, but this semester she is doing it asynchronously.  Students compete and use an alternate name generated by Kahoot (the names generated by Kahoot are different each time for each student).  We saw Grace’s home screen called, “My Kahoots”.  There is an option with ready-made Kahoots.  There are Accounting ones, so Grace selected “Accounting 101”.  You can duplicate this, so it appears in your Kahoots.  Editing can be done, and it is easy.  Grace showed us how to use this (add questions, add pictures, add graphs).  When you are done, click “Done”, “Share”, “Play Now” or “Assign”.  Then test it.  Grace has the students send her a screen shot of their results.  In “Create”, you can see what students had differently.  Grace has received positive feedback from her students.  You can experiment with this.  You can send the link to the Kahoot you create in an email or in assignments.
6. Grace showed us “Treat Trivia” Kahoot she created to demo with us. It took her ½ hour to create.  There are quiz questions, a word cloud, and sorting questions.  You can use these to teach synchronously and/or with teams.  The Classic is individual.  To join, use the PIN with Kahoot.it.  We all got in and played the 10 multiple choice questions.  Feedback included: Fun, Cool, Excellent.  You can use this to teach synchronously or assign it asynchronously.
7. Grace shared her Discussion Board game. For example, for the unit on skin, choose a product in your home that makes a claim, discuss the ingredients, and relate to the structure of the skin.  Student responses must agree or disagree.  Have an aspect of choice and challenging another answer or use role plays.  Give students an example to help them.
8. Kathleen shared a game she uses in her math class. Students must find something in their home to do with fractions (ex. collection of 8 perfumes) or find something in the shape of a triangle and measure the sides or find something with the Golden Ratio (Fibonacci).
9. Grace does something similar where she has the BIO50/51 students find something made with microbes.
10. Grace shared iNaturalist for identifying plants/animals Christina Colon has shared in another FIG.
11. Amy shared that she uses YouTube videos. Students view them and then comment on them.  She creates a table for the students to put their answers in to help them respond.  Discussion followed.
12. Grace shared Up Goer 5. It uses simple words to describe hard concepts.
13. Grace suggested keeping the number of new things each semester low to prevent confusion among the students. A discussion of Discussion Boards followed.
14. Amy has students create a business with a name, product, etc.
15. Next meeting: Fri Nov 20, 2020 at 12:40pm via Zoom.
16. We discussed Molleindustria, who makes the McDonald’s Game, and “Coffee Shop”. The web sites are: https://molleindustria.org/mcdonalds/ and https://coolmathgames.com/0-coffee-shop
17. We also discussed “iCivics”, an easy to use activities website for educators (was shown at the CUNY Games Conference).
18. There will be no CUNY Games Conference this year.
19. Grace will post a video on the Commons on how to do an Escape Room (the first one she did took her 8 hours to put together). She made an Escape Room called, “KCC Clinic”.  At our next meeting, she will go through her clinic with us.  She did it briefly with us today. It is a Virtual Escape Room.  Here is the link for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiKkmRdQ8ac

20. At our next meeting there will be more discussion on Escape Rooms.
21. Meeting ended at 1:20pm.

Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz, KCC Bio

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting

Friday, Sep 25, 2020, 12pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:   Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Christina Colon (KCC BIO), Daniel Kane (KCC TAT), Tom Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Elizabeth Mulligan (KCC BIO), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO), Kathleen Offenholley (BMCC MAT), Cynthia Olvina (KCC MENTAL HEALTH), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Michael Ortiz (KCC BEH), Nancy Rowland (KCC SURG TECH)

Meeting began at 12:00pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone. We did introductions because we had some new people join.
2. Grace summarized from the pre-semester surveys what we all hope to get out of this FIG. Basically, we want to find ways and get ideas to engage and inspire our students.
3. We discussed Kahoot, a low stakes game we can use in class.
4. Daniel shared eSports, a competitive (for scholarships) game (like Fortnight).
5. We discussed that many of us are teaching asynchronously so it is hard to do games online. We should try things, and if they don’t work , we don’t have to do them again.
6. Tom shared a game he uses called McDonald’s Game (https://molleindustria.org/mcdonalds/). It teaches market structure.  It is from Mollein Industrial (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molleindustria )
7. We can use Google to search for videos and/or simulations for use in our classes. These are not games, but they can be interactive to engage the students.
8. The CDC website has “Solve the Outbreak” that can be used to teach epidemiology.
9. Christina has tried to come up with activities that do not require technology, such as creating an organism like Mary did in class.
10. Kathleen shared a synchronous game. Count to 10.  The moderator starts with zero, then one-by-one the class starts counting, beginning with one.  If two people say a number at the same time, you must start all over again.  It’s a great icebreaker.  It’s hard than it sounds.  We tried it and only got to 7.  This could be modified (ex. use a Fibonacci sequence).
11. Grace shared an asynchronous game she made using the Bitmoji app. She used Google Slides and imported as PDF or PPT.  She did this in Google Classroom.  She had a green board with the meeting agenda on it.  You can make it look like a classroom in a more interactive way.
12. Grace shared that next time we will look at Escape Room ( Harry Potter, Dewey Decimal System).
13. Grace shared that in Microbiology she does patient diagnosis and plans to set up a virtual clinic.
14. Grace shared Google Slides in Google Chrome and showed how to do this. We can set up a “classroom” with “walls” and a “floor”.  She went through how to set up the slides.  We can also use Google Forms with Google Slides and Google Classroom.  You can set up an escape room, a virtual lab, a business, a multi-step problem, etc. with this.  You can download Google Suite and it has Slides, Classroom, etc.  Here’s a resource:

https://docs.google.com/presentation

Look for “google slides escape room template”.  PPT Jeopardy has templates, too.  Don’t re-invent the wheel.  Google has a “How to make a Google active classroom slide” video.  See the Google Escape Room topic in this.  Discussion followed.  Start off simple and then make it more complex.

15. Beth shared “Badges”. How do you reward students virtually? She uses achievement badges.  On Blackboard in Course Tools, go to Achievements and then “Custom”.  Beth walked us through the process to create and use badges.  We can use these to lighten our workload.  Maybe we can put ourselves of the line by doing something whimsical if students get X number of badges, such as singing or playing he guitar, or wearing a funny hat.  Discussion followed.
16. Grace mentioned Up-goer 5. It can be used to explain complex concepts in common language.  Discussion followed.
17. For the next meeting, if we have items to discuss, send them to Grace. At the next meeting Grace will try Escape Room with us.
18. The next meeting with be 10/30/20 at 12:30PM.
19. Meeting ended at 1pm.

Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz, KCC Bio

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting

Wednesday, Nov 20, 2019, 12:40pm, M391

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:    Grace Axler-DiPerte (BIO), Maria Bartolomeo (BEH), Erik Conte (BEH),

Daniel Kane (TAH), Beth Mulligan (BIO), Mary Ortiz (BIO)

Meeting began at 12:40pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone.
2. Mary shared what she did in BIO21 (Comparative Anatomy) with creating a vertebrate that could live in space. Each lab group had to design a vertebrate that could survive in the void of outer space.  It went well.
3. Beth shared she did Mind Mapping on the topic of immunity in Microbiology class (BIO51). She discussed how students could use this map to study.  Discussion on how to gamify this followed.
4. Eric shared what he did in his EDC91 student teaching class with two groups of five each. He had the students pass sheets around on how to solve student issues (ex. crying student).  He did this in another class as well – Psych 24 with Autism.  For Autism, the topic was Differentiated Instruction (ex. Resource Room, Push-in).  Discussion took place.
5. We discussed how we can “swap” groups if one group is floundering. For example, we can say, “Ok, switch groups” so we do not single out a particular group.  We discussed different ways to form groups (ex. random, count-off 1, 2, 1 ,2, …)
6. Grace presented and explained how “If At” scratch-off cards work.
7. Beth explained what POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) is. Each person has a role (ex. presenter, manager, recorder, etc.).  You can do this with a concept the students have not gone over yet.  Use leading questions.  She did this with the topic of lateral gene transfer in transformation in BIO51. Grace Googled POGIL for Psychology and Immunity and shared the sheets she found.
8. Maria tried Brain Writing with the topic of Learning with positive and negative reinforcement in her psychology class. She created a scenario – how can a parent get a child to eat broccoli? (If they eat it, they get M&Ms.  If they do not eat it, then no TV.)  The students passed a sheet around and added to the ideas already on the sheet.  Maria said it went well and was fun, and the students were engaged.  She discussed “Memory” and positive and negative reinforcement.
9. We discussed the “Head Band” and “Cut-Ups” games.
10. Mary shared what she did in BIO/MAT91 Biostatistics last semester with the topic of the criteria for a Binomial Distribution. She had sets of four different colored index cards, asked each student to select one card of each color, and decide if their set of cards met the criteria for a binomial distribution.  All the cards were different, so each student had a different scenario.
11. We discussed rewards. Stickers are fun.  Be careful of high stakes rewards.
12. Daniel shared Level-Up Your Character using Habitica. He also mentioned Learning Gamification and Gamify Your Life.  You can make the whole class a game.
13. There was discussion about Dojo, a tool used in elementary schools to let parents know how their child is doing in class.
14. We decided to look at on-line tools and submit ideas or tools for discussion next semester.
15. Next meeting: Grace will send out a Doodle next semester for our first spring meeting of 2020.

Meeting ended at 1:40pm.   Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz

Wednesday, Oct 23, 2019, 12:40pm, M391

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:    Grace Axler-DiPerte (BIO), Maria Bartolomeo (BEH), Erik Conte (BEH),

Daniel Kane (TAH), Beth Mulligan (BIO), Mary Ortiz (BIO), Michael Ortiz (BEH)

Meeting began at 12:40pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone.
2. Beth shared feedback from using her game with nucleotides and proteins. The game was well received by her class.
3. Daniel led us all in Mind Mapping and Brain Writing
   1. Mind Mapping
      1. Daniel uses this game in his Tourism Entrepreneur class when he teaches about setting up a business in the industry.
      2. We started with “T&H” on the board in a circle. Then, Daniel asked us to name businesses associated with T&H.  We said: Airline, Cruise, Bar, etc.  These were placed in circles connected to the original T&H circle by lines.

• Then, we selected one business, “Bar”, and named things we needed to establish a bar, such as Staff, Drinks, Licenses, Glassware, Entertainment, etc.

1. With something like this, students can compete, where each could set up their own bar and then have them pick the “best” bar.
2. Daniel shared a Mind Map for Mitosis and one for Sociological Theories.
3. Post Its could be used with this.

• This works well with sub-categories.
• You could have groups each do a part of the map.

1. This gives student generated content. It is a type of brainstorming.

1. Brain Writing
   1. This activity helps to curb dominating or shy students.
   2. This is based on three foundations:
      1. Works with groups of 4-5 or 6 people.
      2. Each person comes up with 1 or 3 ideas and puts it/them on paper.
      3. Pass the paper every 5 minutes.

• If you do 3 ideas, you can get 108 ideas relatively quickly.

1. Present a problem and ask the students to write an answer. For example, we answered the following, “We all work for a travel agency.  How can we generate more sales?”
2. Purposely be a little vague or more specific with your question.
3. There were 6 of us. We each wrote an idea down and then passed our sheet to the next person for them to add to it.  You eventually get your sheet back.  This is better to do with one idea per sheet.

• You could read each groups’ idea, or let the group read it.
• The students could vote on the best idea.

1. Even if ideas are unrealistic, you can bring it back to a meaningful discussion.
2. We all shared ideas in our fields (ex. Psychology, Biology)
3. We will try this and report back at our next meeting.

4. Next meeting: Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 12:40pm in M391. Grace will send out a notice.

Meeting ended at 1:40pm.   Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting

Wednesday, Sep 25, 2019, 12:40pm, M391

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:    Grace Axler-DiPerte (BIO), Daniel Kane(TAT) , Beth Mulligan (BIO),

Mary Ortiz (BIO), Michael Ortiz (BEH)

Meeting began at 12:40pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone.
2. Beth shared ZOOBs (Zoology, Ontology, Ornithology, Botany) with the group. She had used them to make DNA molecules.  Now she is using them to have students make protein models.  Beth ordered the ZOOBs from Alex Toys.  You can get bins of 500 inexpensively.  Beth led us all in making proteins.  Each of us got a bag of ZOOBs.  We each made a protein with 10 red pieces in the middle of the chain.  The ZOOBs are used to show primary, secondary and tertiary protein structure and denaturing.  Beth demonstrated how this is done.  Much discussion and sharing occurred.  Beth mentioned she wished the ZOOBs came in more colors.  She mentioned maybe marking them with tape to create more varieties.  Mary will bring in thin, colored, electrical tape for her to try this.
3. Daniel spoke about an airport operations simulation game that integrates fun applied to learning. We also spoke about Jeopardy Labs.com.
4. Grace provided a short history of how our group got started.
5. Grace spoke about Taleblazer (from MIT Labs), a free app where you can create games.
6. We discussed using chips for ATP molecules. We could also use trivia questions to earn ATP.
7. We discussed prizes – pens, erasers, etc. These can be purchased inexpensively.
8. We all Googled ZOOB Toy.
9. Grace mentioned that Michael’s gives educator discounts.
10. Daniel shared The Game Crafter and Ali Express for ordering chips, toys, etc. They are very inexpensive, but may take 4-5 weeks for delivery.
11. Michael discussed Pictionary and shared categories for the natural and social sciences. We discussed having students categorize the cards.  Students can also make/design cards.
12. We discussed fears of students when they don’t recognize or know what they have to do with game materials.
13. At our next meeting Daniel will show us Mind Map and Brain Writing. We may use big post-its.
14. Next meeting: A Wed in Oct, 12:40am, M391 (hopefully). Grace will send out a notice.

Meeting ended at 1:40pm.

Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz