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

Wednesday, Nov 17, 2021, 1:50pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:    Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Evrick Brown (KCC Beh Sci), Christina Colon (KCC BIO), Amy Haas (KCC BUS), Olga Kagan (SPS Nursing), Tom Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO)

Meeting began at 1:50pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone to our 3^rd and last meeting for this semester.
2. Grace shared the post semester survey link: https://forms.gle/n7sfnyKHw5rUm3pw8
3. Last time Amy shared items she did using flippity. She did a scavenger hunt with locks and keys with her class (it was more like an escape room).  The students liked it.  Amy demoed it for us via screen share.  It was on depreciation.  It was great because it got the students to know basic facts.  She was thrilled.  She had the students do this in teams as an assignment.  She showed us how she has this set up in Blackboard and showed us how it works.  Flippity is easy to use (do not touch the blue cells).  The students get several attempts at this.  Grace and Amy shared how to get students to actually do the games (ex. 1 point to participate, 2 points for the right answer).
4. Grace spoke about flippity.net. She shared how it works and what it offers.
5. Grace shared puzzlemaker: https://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/You can use this to make puzzles for your classes.

6. Grace spoke about Ink (https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/) , a programming language you can use to make branched stories.
7. We discussed Mind Mapping and available online tools. She also discussed using Google Jamboard and flippity to do mind maps.  There are a lot of mind mapping tools available.
8. Grace shared flippity.net Manipulatives. You can use Google Draw to make backgrounds.  Grace uses PPT to make backgrounds.  In flippity, remember to publish what you make, or you can lose it.
9. Grace showed a trick: take a PPT slide, make a picture (you can re-size it), File, save as a jpg (you can do it for just one slide or all). She discussed using this to make backgrounds that don’t get lost.  In escape rooms she uses Google Image Search.
10. Grace suggested not overwhelming students with lots of things in a game at once.
11. Christina shared that she does scavenger hunts with her students using iNaturalist.
12. Grace shared Taleblazer, an augmented reality gaming platform: http://taleblazer.org/. This hails from the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program Learning Lab.  Grace “placed” microbes across the KCC campus for students to use a phone app to find the microbes.

13. Christina shared that you could have students or teams of students do a mini bio blitz on the KCC campus in iNaturalist. See who can get the most species/taxa.  In iNaturalist students contribute observations to a global database.
14. Christina mentioned the Journey North site for migrating butterflies. Also, Nature’s Notebook.
15. Tom showed/shared his first flippity. He used the Flippity Randomizer to have students make an ad for Advertising.  Discussion followed.  He will come back next semester to let us know how it went.
16. Christina mentioned Prokaryotes Are Us to have students sell a prokaryote to us. It is a multi-media assignment (ex. video).
17. Grace mentioned a board game called Snake Oil to sell things. She showed us a photo of it.
18. Christina mentioned a fishing game to show over-fishing and its repercussions. The site is: https://cloudinstitute.org/fish-game

19. Grace shared we want our student’s attention, not just have them do a game. She spoke about the game she and Mary created and published called, “What’s Your Diagnosis?”.  Students must ask the right questions to find the correct microbe causing the disease.
20. Amy mentioned Herstory and playing Monopoly with uneven amounts of money.
21. Grace thanked everyone for participating this semester and is so glad we are trying out different things shared in this FIG.
22. In the Spring, Grace will go over Google Forms. She may set up a separate meeting for this topic.
23. Our GBL spring meetings will be on campus, but maybe online, too. Grace will let us know.

Meeting ended at 2:53 pm.

Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz, KCC Bio

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

Wednesday, Oct 20, 2021, 1:50pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:    Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Amy Haas (KCC BUS), Tyronne Johnson (KCC),

Olga Kagan (SPS Nursing), Tom Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO)

Meeting began at 1:50pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone.
2. Grace mentioned “inky”, which has a coding language with Unity. They have an editing software to create games.  You can use it to skeleton a game.  More on this later.
3. Olga discussed her game where you look at ingredients to see if the food is safe. She discussed food allergens/components and cross-references.  The premise for the game is to teach people how to read food labels because there is a great deal of misinformation out there.  It is important to learn/know about ingredients (ex. sesame in tahini, anchovies in Caesar dressing).
4. Amy shared Mind Mapping. She used Flippity to develop two games for her students.  Her class is in teams.  Amy explained how she set it up in Flippity and showed us her game where students must place steps in an accounting cycle in the correct order.  Each team must submit it.  The website for Flippity is: Flippity.net.  We mentioned this could be used to do something with the Krebs Cycle.  Grace may try this next semester in General Microbiology with the Krebs Cycle.  When using Flippity, you must remember to publish it (File, Publish to web).
5. Amy showed us her second game (puzzle) using classification of accounting terms on a page with columns. We discussed this.
6. Grace shared a Mind Map Template in Mural. The URL is:

https://www.mural.co/templates/mind-map

She showed us how to use it.  There is a tutorial.  She is working on this for skin and eye diseases for Microbiology.  The template is large, but the print is tiny.

She Googled mind mapping to find it.  Grace demoed setting it up and using it.  You can use shapes, arrows, etc.  Discussion followed.  You can set it up based on categories (ex. bacterial, viral).

7. Olga tried Kahoot with her children. It would be hard to do in Nursing because the curriculum does not give much leeway.
8. Tyronne has used Kahoot for review with his students. He got the upgraded version to make his own slides.  He likes Flippity and Mural over Blackboard Collaborate.  Amy shared that you could use a Word document instead of the blackboard white board.  Grace purchased an inexpensive document camera from Amazon that she uses as a blackboard.
9. Amy mentioned using Poll Anywhere.
10. Grace mentioned Questions.
11. Grace shared that she assigns Kahoots as homework. The students get extra points if they beat her score.  They may do it 3-4 times to beat her, but they are actually studying.  This can be a challenge in an asynchronous environment.
12. Amy wants to try an escape room. This can be done via Google Slides in Google Drive.  She showed her Library example and how she set it up (ex. background elements, add sections, add questions).  There is opportunity to give students feedback on wrong answers.  Students get a “key” (ex. carrot) to get out of the room.
13. Grace demoed her Virtual Gram Stain Lab.
14. Grace shared that if you only want to use text, you can use “ink”. She showed us this.  “ink” is a language.  It is text-based.  There is a YouTube video by hoverboard that gives a tutorial on how to use “ink”.  They have a demo on WWII you can look at.  You can download the editor for free.  You can upload what you do to other places.  The editor is “inky”.
15. Tyronne asked Grace to show us her Virtual Gram Stain Lab. Grace shared it with us. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vlvf3-r782HvxWKr0w-2DybBnNFk0oU1GYLJxPVnvoE/preview

Discussion followed.  Grace gives the students the preview.  You change the slide ID to preview so the students cannot change what you give them.  Grace will send the link.

16. At the next meeting Grace will do more on ink, escape rooms, Google Forms, and Questions. Also, for the next meeting, let Grace know what you want and come to share what you tried.
17. The next (third and last for the Fall 2021 semester) meeting will be on Wed, 11/17/2021 at 1:50pm via Zoom. Grace will get the meeting info out to us.

Meeting ended at 2:54 pm.

Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz, KCC Bio

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

Wednesday, Sep 29, 2021, 1:50pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants:    Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Amy Haas (KCC BUS), Tom Lavazzi (KCC ENG),

Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO)

Meeting began at 1:50pm.

1. Grace welcomed everyone.
2. Grace shared that the Mollie Industria website is not working anymore. You get a warning that it may not be safe.  Grace found it on Crazygames.com.
3. Grace asked if we tried anything discussed previously:
   1. Tom tried Flippity and had a hard time setting it up.
   2. Amy used Monopoly “in class”. She was trying to find a version for remote.  She tried working in Excel.  There is a Monopoly version online for $1.99.  She found a free game, not Atlantic City, but you can play it.  She was trying to get students in groups outside of class (one is synchronous, one is asynchronous).  The game she found is Business Game: Monopolist.  A group can be divided in half and play against each other.  The students make journal entries.  Discussion followed.
4. Grace had groups in Google Docs for asynchronous sections, so she did not have to coordinate.
5. We discussed groups and games. Amy used data from Monopoly in a spreadsheet.
6. Grace has students do a reflection on the games. She uses Flippity.  She has students share a study tip.  The Flippity URL is:  flippity.net
7. Grace mentioned having students do collaborative flash cards. Each student creates a card so that the class has a whole set of flashcards.
8. Grace showed us how to use Flippity to set up flashcards. Do not modify anything in blue.  Grace has the students make flashcards for Bacterial Metabolism in her Microbiology class.
9. Grace showed https://jeopardylabs.com It is best for synchronous or in person classes.  Kahoot is better for use in asynchronous classes.
10. Grace went over the Flippity Randomizer (like spinning a wheel). She uses it in Microbiology to set up to see if conditions are possible.  Discussion followed.  In Flippity you can do concept maps with manipulatives.
11. Grace demoed Google Jam Board (through the Google suite) using sticky notes (text boxes) as elements to arrange so that a concept makes sense in a flow chart. This can be used for doing ordered steps.  You can Save/Share it like a Google Form.  Discussion followed.  You could also use PPT or Google Slides as “old tech” to do this.  Let Grace know if you try this.
12. We also looked at the following in Flippity: Word Search, Crossword, Hangman, Mad Libs.
13. Our next meeting will be on Wed, Oct 20, 2021, at 1:50pm via Zoom. Grace will send out the Zoom info.  (The 3^rd meeting will be on Nov 17, 2021, at 1:50pm via Zoom.)
14. Amy mentioned her FIG for tomorrow and the book, “Intentional Tech”, by Derrik Bruff.

Meeting ended at 2:51 pm.

Notes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz, KCC Bio