Consolarium

Endless Ocean for the Nintendo Wii was one of those games that immediately caught my eye. A wonderful world in which the player can become immersed in a rich, vibrant and somewhat hypnotically therapeutic  underwater world. I’ve written about how I thought it might be used to drive learning before but my initial ideas have been put into place and extended beyond recognition by some really creative teachers.

Last week I went with Margaret Cassidy from Stirling Council to Cowie PS to see a teacher that was using Endless Ocean with her class:

Mrs Bullivant and her class of P.6 children treated me to an afternoon of sheer joy. I walked in to a class that had been turned into an underwater world that was awash with a tide of enthusiastic and industrious learnning.

•  Streamers of various shades of blue were hung from two lines that criss-crossed the class.From these lines also hung starfish, sharks and other underwater creatures that the children had made.
• The Wii was hooked up to the whiteboard and the gameplay was integral to the learning.
• The children were divided into ‘dive teams’ and their ‘dive leader’ had to manage certain aspects of how the children worked together.
• Children were engaged with a teacher led leson that investigated buoyancy.
• Children were searching the web to find out more about some of the creatures that they discovered in the game.
• A spreadsheet activity detailing the range of creatures that they had discovered was in place.
• A shipwreck (created by the janitor) was sitting in the class. This helped drive much of the creative writing work.
• The children created treasure maps and were using these to look at grid references.
• Mermaids were created in art and design and very lifelike they were too!
• Reference books were in great demand when I was in the class and the initial stimulus of the game appeared to drive a real interest for what could be found in the complementary resource that was the book.
• Children actively encouraged to measure exactly how long 7 metres is as a result of finding out that that was how long a Great White Shark was.

This was just a wonderful visit and an example of what learning in class can be. Yes we need creative teachers to lead this but isn’t that what we are meant to be. The work that was in evidence in this class was delightful to witness and further cemented my ideas of the possibilities of sandbox games such as Endless Ocean.

Do your pupils have what it takes to be the Scottish Schools Sonic and Mario at the Olympics Champion for 2008? If so, then get involved in the Mario Olympics Challenge at this year’s Game Zone Challenge at the Scottish Learning Festival ‘08. All you need is a Nintendo Wii, a copy of the game and up to four Wiimotes (the handset that you use to play the Wii).

Over the next few weeks we would like your pupils to enter the trampolining heat. They must try to get the highest score they can on the trampoline event in the game. Their validated scores should then be emailed by a teacher to consolarium@ltscotland.org.uk and we will upload this to the leaderboard.

The competition heats will end on Friday 12 September when the top eight on the leaderboard will be identified and invited to Glasgow to compete in the Game Zone Challenge. Travel costs will be covered by LTS.

One school in Dundee has already piloted this game and not only was this great fun but it led to enthusiastic learning around the associated curricular areas. This work will soon appear on the Consolarium’s website in case study format.

We have established a Glow group for those who want to collaborate and share their work and experiences in this venture. If your school is not in Glow then please do still feel free to join in and compete….

Please note that the finals will comprise of the 100m sprint, the swimming and the trampoline so get cracking with it. They will be held on a stage in the Education Village (Thursday 25 September, 3:00pm) so that an enthusiastic audience can cheer on the competitors. The champion will win some computer games goodies for their school and this prize will be presented by one of Scotland’s best rugby players of recent times, Gregor Townsend MBE who now works with the Winning Scotland Foundation.

Please contact us at consolarium@ltscotland.org.uk if you have any queries about this. Good luck and maybe we’ll see you and your pupils at SLF’08!