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This section of the V4T Project portal provides administrative information for the project contractual partners and for the European Commission and it is password protected.

Games

Translation:
de

This Section provides access to an Online database of:
• The best educational Videogames and mobile apps available on the market
• The most suitable Videogames and Apps that, even if not specifically designed for educational purpose, can be used as teaching or learning tools with students

Videogames and apps are categorized, analyzed and assessed in order to provide the teachers with all the necessary information and hints to make full use of the Videogames and Apps in teaching contexts.

Partners' Institution
Hellenic Open University
Author
Vicky Maratou

APPS/VIDEOGAMES

Image source: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/use-your-brainz-edu/id950482467?mt=8
Product type
Educational videogame
Name of the videogame/app
Use Your Brainz EDU
Name of the producer
GlassLab Inc., PopCap/Electronic Arts & Florida State University
Year
2015
How to find it
For free
Direct link if available
As of December 20, 2018, GlassLab service has been suspended and this game is no longer accessible
Main technical requirements
Ios
Native Virtual Reality Support
No
Single/Multiplayer
Single
Type
Strategy
Target Audience
12-17 years
Augmented Reality
No
PEGI Clasification
7

Use in Educational contexts

Degree of required tutoring
Autonomous use by students
Subjects involved
No related to school subject
Educational Potential
In this game, players must stop some very hungry cartoonish zombies who are desperately trying to make it across a yard to invade player's home and eat their brain. To prevent this from happening, players must strategically plant a garden filled with powerful plant obstacles, each plant with different properties, designed to keep those zombies away.
The game preserves the fun of the popular game "Plants vs Zombies 2" and gameplay is pretty much the same. However, what makes Use Your Brainz EDU different is the added learning analytics engine to capture student's progress and assess problem solving skills, turning it into an alternative in-class assessment tool.
Learning Object / Suggested activities with students
Teachers, who register their account in the GlassLab Games portal (https://www.glasslabgames.org/games/PVZ), can create a new class in the game and ask students to login for free with the same password and play the game in groups of 2 for 20-25 minutes.
Registered teachers can also have access to the four very comprehensive lesson plans on the GlassLab Games portal, which aim to help students break down the problems met during the gameplay and argue their strategy to solve these problems. Through the proposed activities in the lesson plans, students can realise what is the problem-solving cycle, how to work backwards to solve a problem, how to draw pictures to represent data, and more problem-solving strategies. These lesson plans are also linked to math problems appropriate for students aged 11-17 y.o.

Skills and competences

Skills and competences acquired
Use Your Brainz EDU is a game that assesses the important competency of problem solving. More specifically, through this game, students' ability in the following is assessed:
• Analyzing givens & constraints
• Planning a solution pathway
• Effective & efficient use of tools and resources
• Monitoring & evaluating progress
Registered teachers that use the game in their class can have access to an online teacher dashboard that gives educators access to reports on student progress. Real-time reports demonstrate how in-game accomplishments align to problem solving.
Soft skills
Critical thinking, Problem solving, Creativity, Time management

2 Comments


Partners' Institution
FH JOANNEUM
Author of the comments
Gerald Weihs
Kurbelt das Denkverm
Partners' Institution
Xano Channel
Author of the comments
Ignacio Pachés Giner
This is a nice example of a fun game that is very educational and pushes the player to solve problems.by combining several skills which are considered valuable for any person (path analysis, resource , etc.) . And the idea of tunning the game and add help to analyze the learning progress and assist the assesment of the ability to solve the problems is a great enhacement.
There are some games that simply congratulate you when you progress from one level to the next. But this one goes deep into this assistance to the learner of the game.
Combining both (the skills required and the added help) makes a great choice for students wishing to get the most of games


This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The V4T - Videogames 4 Teachers project © 2018