When I first started writing this blog last spring, I was asked to include consideration of the interests of medical libraries and librarians. My experience is in public libraries and, while I have mentioned games like Re-Mission and the idea of encouraging doctors (some of whom have beneficial video game experiences) to play something besides golf, I had little I could easily offer.
While researching information about charities for my November print column on "Gamers with Heart" (discussing charitable efforts of the gaming community), I heard LaVerne Poussaint's appeal to ALA members to support her efforts to raise money participating in the second annual Extra Life event, a 24-hour gaming marathon funding pediatric cancer research and treatment at Texas Children's Hospital. In doing so, she will also "highlight the potentialities and promise of NanoMedicine in oncology research/therapeutics while promoting the efficacy of NanoGaming in K-16 sciences curricula."
I asked her to write a guest blog immediately, both to publicize her efforts and to fulfill my long-delayed wish to give medical librarians something a little meatier to consider from this column. I will talk more about Extra Life on Wednesday. Meantime, tighten your seat belts and prepare for the amazing ride LaVerne Poussaint has in store for you. – Liz
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LaVerne Poussaint's credits include: Principal, Plutonic Research & Knowledge Teams Intl. [PRAKTI]; Advisory Board Member, NanoMission; Publisher, Kanada's Kids NanoArt/NanoGaming blog, hosted by the International NanoScience Community (EU) Her previous appointments were at UPenn's BioMed library and the Avery School of Architecture and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University). Her firm's DeepMed division is devoted to DeepWeb mining for the NanoMedicine and NanoBioPharmacology sub-specialities.
"Gaming is my Friday night/Saturday morning gig (that is, when I'm not otherwise pursuing the pleasure principle). Moreover, my deepest passions are reserved for rare books and manuscripts, particularly ancient Asian medical manuscripts and I'm engaged in that at this particular moment, drawing upon very different parts of my brain."
NANOGAMING: At the Nexus of STEM1 and STM2 Education
Affirming a pedagogical premise that "learning is a process [which] people do rather than a process that is done to people", the groundswell of recognition for gaming as a cognitive development tool has been undergirded by burgeoning grants, initiatives, collaborations, and competitions. More than just an information-acquisition activity, cognitive ability vis-à-vis gaming has more to do with the building up, growth, and development of neural infrastructure which enhances students' capacities in comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation while fostering refinement of reasoning capabilities and their grasp of conceptual content.
The "play with purpose" impetus to assess the academic merits and legitimacy of simulated virtual learning in STEM education is further impelled by rigorous monitoring of research results, efficacy measures, program implementations, performance metrics, and technological capacity developments underway at Library Game Lab at University of Syracuse, Center for the History of Electronic Games at Strong National Museum of Play, New York Library Association, Complex Systems Center at University of Vermont's College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gaming Labs, School of Engineering at Arizona State University, Purdue University's Discovery Park and its Birck NanoTechnology Center and NanoHub, University of California at Berkeley's I School and Lawrence Hall of Science, Oxford University, University of Virginia, Carnegie Mellon University's Library Arcade, NanoHigh at SUNY Albany's College of NanoScale Science & Engineering, IEEE, Serious Games Initiative, National Science Foundation, Federation of American Scientists, University of Saskatchewan, University of Vermont, McGill University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Central Florida5, Cornell University, and elsewhere.
NanoGaming aids in the development of interdisciplinary proficiencies and advances meta-cognitive functioning of students of the sciences, technology, engineering, medicine, and mathematics as it introduces them to fundamental NanoScience and NanoTechnology concepts, structures, devices, materials, and applications as these exist and behave at the sub-atomic, atomic, and molecular levels.
I'll be highlighting the potentialities and promise of NanoMedicine in oncology research/therapeutics while promoting the efficacy of NanoGaming in K-16 sciences curricula when I participate in the upcoming Extra Life® Children's Cancer Charity Gaming Marathon4 next Saturday. These are games to which my time will be devoted:
Considered to be the flagship for the health-gaming movement in the SG3 genre, Re-Mission™ is a Microsoft® Windows™-based third-person shooter action 20+-levels video game for cancer patients designed with direct input from them and their oncology doctors and nurses. Deeply immersed within the complex, microscopic world of cancer-ridden bodies, Roxxi the NanoBot engages in fierce battles at the cellular level to obliterate malignant, replicating cells utilizing her chemo blaster, radiation gun, and antibiotic rocket while being commissioned to activate the patients into chemo compliance, medications adherence, and integrative therapies. Other health-enabling characters are the nanotech pioneer Dr. West and Smitty, the retired NanoBot prototype who serves as an embedded mentor by providing holographic guidance. Re-Mission™'s real-world environment (actual medical terminology, a feisty kid's showboating, visceral feel of the spinal cord and oesophagus) is employed and a player's successes or failures are measured by factors such as growth of bacteria, presence of fever, and cancerous cell division. Each foe is fought with varying means, different mechanisms and the cancer patient learns appropriate fighting styles of war against disease and enemies of the body – antibiotics, chemotherapy, radiation. Weapons against the cancers can be upgraded while virtual vigilance must be maintained to keep healthy cells from becoming engaged in the nanobattle.
Re-Mission™'s content and online community is downloadable in English, French, and Spanish. CIGNA HealthCare, in partnership with developer HopeLab distributes the games in CD or DVD format (for free) to cancer patients, healthcare workers, and institutions. HopeLab has recently contracted with game developer Virtual Heroes™ and is gearing up to launch a Re-Mission2™ version.
NanoMission™by Playgen ™ utilizes game-based learning in interactive 3D environments to augment nanoscience instruction. Its learning innovations introduce elemental concepts of quantum physics, micro-electronics, molecular structures, pico-to-giga metre spatial relationships and nano-scale imaging, molecular self-assembly, NanoMedicine and cancer drug delivery systems, environmental micro-organisms and viral proliferation, nano-machines, nano-materials development and manipulation, atomic force microscopes, electron microscopes, scanning tunneling and probe microscopy, nano-structural modification, nano-robots, nano-sensors, nano-motors, wave particle density, principles of uncertainty, exponential notation, and quantum computing applications. As virtual biomed scientists immersed in the nano-world of Lisa the graduate student, Dr. Goodlove her Professor, and Jacob the cancer patient, student gamers fight against time and disease by navigating via the bloodstream to a tumour site while learning to avoid natural defense mechanisms in NanoMedicine Vesicle, NanoBot, Intro Challenge, and more recent V2 modules. In the NanoImaging module, students are challenged to identify toxic micro-organisms intentionally released by evil scientist Dr. Neevil and must develop counter-measures to save the world against fatal, genetically-modified algae which have turned lakes red and threaten animal and human life. The NanoScaling module enables players to visualize spatial relationships between objects at all scales by allowing scrolling back and forth through a range of objects from a hydrogen atom to the Sun and provision of measurement references. NanoMission's teaching methodology transports nano out of the domain of science fiction in the students' minds and delivers them to the door of direct, experiential comprehension within the site of a simulator terminal. Developed with a team of professors and scientists within the nanotech, physics, nanomedicine, and engineering disciplines, NanoMission™ ensures that instructors achieve their pedagogical aims with provision of lessons plans, handouts, online support forum, and links to other supplementary resources. By way of branding sponsorships, these PC games are made available worldwide to schools, colleges, and universities at no charge.
NanoZone is an interactive, web-based site with games, videos, and comics. It also features interviews with scientists and teachers. NanoZone provides a grades 2-7 report in the form of a correlations chart for California State and National science content standards. NanoZone is a project of the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California at Berkeley. During the marathon, I'd like to play with the NanoConverter and the SEM, but there are no points to win and no score, so I'll compete by helping NanoBrain to solve NanoPuzzles.
Nanooze is Cornell University's Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility project site. Geared towards the upper-elementary and middle-school levels, NanoCure was created in the English, Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili languages. I'll explore all four sometime during the 24-hours marathon.
The NanoQuest® pilot project is an instructional device of the platformer subgenre incorporating quintessential aspects of physics, chemistry, and biology to engage students in leading-edge activity of nanotechnology. Gamers escape from entrapment by assisting Orlas and Jack to find and utilize an atomic force microscope; collect parts, assemble, then navigate a molecular nanocar (built from buckyballs, carbon nanotubes, and nanowires) over a crystal landscape – all while avoiding the slowing, static-charged molecules of nanocrystals, and isolating and repairing the scorched, short-circuiting surface of a malfunctioning CPU inside of a quantum scaling chamber. Other challenges are the virus bonus attack which features a virtual world adventure inside of an animal cell and also NanoPool®, where students' junior-level understanding of electrostatic forces and charged molecules is enhanced with curriculum supports for these topics: states of matter, elements, substances, crystals, static electricity, blood cells, DNA, cells, carbon dioxide, water, atomic and molecular structures, force, friction, magnetism, electrical circuits, heating effects of current, and electronics. Available on CD-ROM disque or downloadable online in English or Irish, NanoQuest® is PC or Mac-compatible, requires broadband connection, and Shockwave plug-in. The website supplies teaching booklet and class activity templates for buckyball assembly.
Gameplay of Mission Critical Studios' Dr. Nano™ is designed around iPhone™ /iPod Touch™ 's built-in accelerometer sensor system as user interface control which measures, for instance, forces of gravity and acceleration. iPod Touch software calculates pace, speed, and distance.
A Dr. Nano™ player controls movement in the third person by directional tilts (right, front, left, back) which cause the iPhone (measuring the player's tilt, speed, and rest time) to respond to forces produced by motion. Tapping on the screen causes the submarine to fire a projectile toward the given target. Two fingers on the screen stops Dr. Nano in his place. An accelerator slide, throttle, calibrator, and a training guide are provided, allowing gamers to gain a handle on controls. The float-while-firing mechanism is disconcerting, but that could be understood as a reflection of the current challenge of targeted-drug-delivery within NanoMedicine.
Mission briefings are 3D graphics tunnelling, low learning curve adventures with the added challenge of limited oxygen supply and the requirement of increasing red blood cell counts. The game is played at 21 levels with Normal/Expert selection options. The newest release allows the player to upgrade the medical device defense system, whereas the previous point system was based solely on kill.
Free updates are currently being developed (Kidney, Liver, Bran Eye, Gall Bladder, Bone Repair Missions); 2nd Generation is recommended for the current upgrades, which require iPhone™ 2.2 Software. Frame rates and overall game mechanics have been improved with the 2nd Generation release. As an authorized Nintendo developer, Mission Critical Studios could produce a Dr Nano™ Wii™ console version. With its creation of this nano-game utiliizing iPhone™ as a gaming platform, this app can be considered as educational software given that it evaluates, tests, and tracks progress of a player's understanding of biology and physics.
NanoWar™ is a free, online, real-time strategy (RTS) action game in Flash format. In disease-defying defense mode, a player (being the blue entity) must decimate the other (red) entity by attacking, capturing, annihilating with an aim towards healthy cell-proliferation. Fourteen levels of achievement are obtainable in French or English. During the marathon, I may switch between playing in solo mode and then try against other players in multiplayer – available in beta test. A level editor is available to create, try, and share one's own levels. To attack another cell: CLICK on your blue cell then CLICK on the red cell. You will send 50% or 99% (keep pressing) of the units from the cell. You have to capture other cells in order to produce your units. The grey cells are neutral and static. The number of units into the cells is limited by their size. Press the SPACEBAR or click outisde to unselect the current cell. Capture the biggest cells to increase the production of units much faster. One can select multiple cells: DRAG and DROP on the empty place.
NanoNet and National Institute for Materials Science of Japan present NanoTech Kids & their Adventures in Nano games and animations. Featuring nano-related elementary lessons in biology, IT, environment, and energy in Japanese and English language site selections. I expect to spend more many leisurely moments with this one.
-------------- 1STEM = Sciences/Tech/Engineering/Maths 2STM= Sciences/Tech/Med 3SG= Serious Games 4 Gamers and good-hearted-givers are still needed for the Kanada's Kids team! 5 Minimal mathematical skills required in NanoScience: algebraic geometry, algebraic statistics, stochastic differential equations, group representation theory, and dynamical systems. Tabula Digita's DimensionM algebraic programs are one example of current, elementary implementation models. At upper levels, no nano-gaming device suffices, given the complexity.
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