Last week, scientists from the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC) met with librarians, teachers, and game designers for a daylong workshop on developing an astrophysics-themed educational video game. Teachers and librarians were selected from across the state as part of a fellowship for educators with a desire to incorporate games into their curriculum. The video game project is a collaboration between the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the Field Day Learning Games Lab in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin Madison (UW–Madison), and WIPAC.
The workshop included talks from WIPAC interim director Jim Madsen, IceCube Neutrino Observatory director of operations John Kelley, UW–Madison assistant professor of physics Lu Lu, and WIPAC scientist and polar instrumentation specialist Delia Tosi.
Participants also played video game demonstrations, visited the Washburn Observatory at UW–Madison, and brainstormed concepts for the astrophysics-themed video game.
The video game will be based on current WIPAC research in neutrino astronomy, cosmic rays, gamma rays, and dark matter. Field Day, an award-winning team with over a dozen educational games used by millions of students yearly, will work with WIPAC to develop the video game.
As part of the project, teacher and librarian fellows will test the game and help create game-related support materials for educators to use in their classrooms. The final video game, which will be available for free, will be distributed by BrainPOP and PBS LearningMedia.
“We are excited to continue our collaboration with Field Day, DPI, teachers and librarians to produce a game that will excite, engage and educate students about IceCube research and the people who make it possible,” says Madsen.