{"id":2253,"date":"2013-11-14T09:27:53","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T17:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nwp.org\/educatorinnovator\/?p=2253"},"modified":"2013-11-14T09:27:53","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T17:27:53","slug":"simcityedu-sets-middle-school-students-to-work-on-a-pollution-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/simcityedu-sets-middle-school-students-to-work-on-a-pollution-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"SimCityEDU sets middle school students to work on a “Pollution Challenge”"},"content":{"rendered":"

SimCityEDU<\/a>, an Educator Innovator<\/em> partner, is proudly releasing its first game-based learning and assessment product built on the popular SimCity video game platform. And now the just-released\u00a0SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!<\/em> will be showcased today, November 14, at the fifth annual Washington Ideas Forum\u2014a gathering of U.S. policymakers and industry\u00a0innovators, presented by\u00a0 The Atlantic<\/a>, the Aspen Institute<\/a>, and the Newseum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has played a version of SimCity can imagine the potential for exploration of interacting systems in the simulated SimCity town.\u00a0This education-focused version,\u00a0SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!,<\/em> is intended to\u00a0act as a powerful teaching tool for educators, integrating learning\u00a0and assessment aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards<\/a> and the Common Core State Standards<\/a> in the same\u00a0experience. Designed for middle school students, the game encourages students to think critically\u00a0about the challenges facing modern cities and the world around them. In the game, students play the\u00a0role of \u201cmayor,\u201d addressing issues of environmental impact in a virtual city while maintaining\u00a0employment levels and citizen happiness.\u00a0The suite of SimCityEDU tools includes teacher and student dashboards with standards-based reporting, and lesson plans to support use in the classroom. Teachers also\u00a0have access to an online community where they can create, share, and browse lesson plans and\u00a0instructional ideas that are designed to address Common Core and Next Generation Science\u00a0Standards.<\/p>\n

SimCityEDU is a first product out of GlassLab<\/a> (or Games Learning and Assessment). GlassLab reflects a shift in the way students can be supported to learn and acquire knowledge. GlassLab expects to engage youth in learning new skills, such as creative problem solving, collaboration and systems thinking,\u00a0and to master new technologies in their game play. GlassLab will address these new challenges by exploring how digital\u00a0games can be effective environments for learning and make learning more relevant by connecting with students\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n

GlassLab is a collaboration between the nonprofit\u00a0Institute of Play<\/a>\u2014also an Educator Innovator<\/em> partner\u2014EA (Electronic Arts), and learning experts from Educational Testing Service and Pearson\u2019s Center for\u00a0Digital Data, Analytics & Adaptive Learning, among others. GlassLab researches and develops digital\u00a0game-based learning and assessment tools that engage students in innovative ways and validate\u00a0student learning of the core skills deemed critical by states for college and the 21st century workplace.\u00a0It was established in 2012 with $10.3M in grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur\u00a0Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.<\/p>\n

SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!<\/em> is available for download today from specialized partners Houghton\u00a0Mifflin Harcourt<\/a>, SMS Tech Solutions<\/a>, Edmodo<\/a> and Learning.com<\/a>, in addition to other distributors. For\u00a0more information, please visit www.simcityedu.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SimCityEDU, an Educator Innovator partner, is proudly releasing its first game-based learning and assessment product built on the popular SimCity video game platform. And now the just-released\u00a0SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! will be showcased today, November 14, at the fifth annual Washington Ideas Forum\u2014a gathering of U.S. policymakers and industry\u00a0innovators, presented by\u00a0 The Atlantic, the Aspen Institute, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":2258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}