Describes a board game, ImmunoScenarios, which was developed to reinforce the ideas about the immune system discussed in lecture classes. Emphasizes important characteristics of the body's specific defense system including specificity, cooperation among various cells, and memory. Includes directions for playing, student handouts, and scenarios.…

Discusses the difficulties in defining instructional technology, suggests core competencies, proposes five instructional designer archetypes, and describes the development of an instructional card game designed for graduate students in instructional design to expose them to major responsibilities of an instructional designer and give them insight…

There is an old joke that says that given the choice between eternal happiness and a ham sandwich, one should choose the ham sandwich. The proof is quite simple: (1) nothing is better than eternal happiness; (2) a ham sandwich is better than nothing; and therefore, it straightforwardly follows from (1) and (2) that (3) a ham sandwich is better…

There are many age-appropriate, free, and easy-to-use online games available on the Web. In this column the authors describe some of their favorites for use with and by elementary students. They have not included games that require children to log on and/or register with their names or play against someone else interactively over the Web. None of…

About eight days before final exams, teacher, Christine Bell, gives her students a study guide and a new assignment: to create their own board game. She groups students into threes. They have a week or so to prepare their game, the form of which should be based on anything of interest. The key is that the content of their game must include one…

The generalization of the solitaire checker puzzle and the attractive patterns that emerge during the process of solving the puzzle, as well in analyzing the minimal solutions of various cases are discussed. Both linear and quadratic patterns are intrinsically linked to this game and the shift from one to the other involves only a slight change…

There is a new generation of workers taking over key positions in organizations and in classrooms. This generation is younger, yes, but they are also different in ways that will definitely change how business is done and how learning is accomplished. Research shows that the way they spent their formative years has given them an entirely different…

The authors present a classroom public goods experiment on the basis of a provision-point mechanism (PPM), where subjects must make an all or nothing decision about providing the public good. As a teaching tool, this design is superior to traditional prisoner's dilemma games because it creates multiple equilibrium in which individual financial…

The balancing framework of Indian gaming as it operates in Oklahoma constrains Oklahoma Indian nations from operating facilities according to the dictates of the marketplace on a large-scale Class III basis. Indian gaming actually brings substantial net economic benefits to the state, contrary to claims that Oklahoma Indian gaming benefits come at…

In 3 studies, young children were tested for their understanding of pretend actions. In Studies 1 and 2, pairs of superficially similar behaviors were presented to 26- and 36-month-old children in an imitation game. In one case the behavior was marked as trying (signs of effort), and in the other case as pretending (signs of playfulness).…

The on-going debate of dodgeball as an acceptable physical education activity seems endless. Reeducating physical education teachers toward current best practices has proven a difficult task. Many teachers continue to include dodgeball in their yearly activities and defend it as a curriculum choice by asserting that important basic skills such as…

The activity of tag may be one of the most widely played games in elementary physical education programs. It comes in many shapes and sizes and can be morphed to meet many needs. For example, tag is used as a general body warm-up for young children (Rosengard, Mckenzie, & Short, 2000), to teach chasing, dodging, and fleeing skills (Graham,…

The first part of this feature examined the burgeoning body of research supporting the use of games as teaching tools. In particular, the article focused on epistemic games such as Firaxis's Civilization, which immerse players in virtual worlds with societies and cultures to which they must adapt for survival and success. This second part of the…

This article describes some activities that include descriptions of four classic games, and also incorporates interdisciplinary concepts into the playing of traditional games. These activities can be played indoors or outside, in a gym or a classroom. A description of an interdisciplinary version of the game is included after the description of…

This study investigates the effects of game genres on the choice of certain language learning strategies among Taiwanese college students. The sample for the study consists of 162 undergraduate freshmen in an institute of technology in Taiwan. The results show that game genres have an influence on the choice of different language learning…