Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

At a time when scientific and technological competence is vital to the nation's future, the weak performance of U.S. students in science reflects the uneven quality of current science education. Although young children come to school with innate curiosity and intuitive ideas about the world around them, science classes rarely tap this potential. Many experts have called for a new approach to science education, based on recent and ongoing research on teaching and learning. In this approach, simulations and games could play a significant role by addressing many goals and mechanisms for learning science: the motivation to learn science, conceptual understanding, science process skills, understanding of the nature of science, scientific discourse and argumentation, and identification with science and science learning.

To explore this potential, Learning Science: Computer Games, Simulations, and Education, reviews the available research on learning science through interaction with digital simulations and games. It considers the potential of digital games and simulations to contribute to learning science in schools, in informal out-of-school settings, and everyday life. The book also identifies the areas in which more research and research-based development is needed to fully capitalize on this potential.

Learning Science will guide academic researchers; developers, publishers, and entrepreneurs from the digital simulation and gaming community; and education practitioners and policy makers toward the formation of research and development partnerships that will facilitate rich intellectual collaboration. Industry, government agencies and foundations will play a significant role through start-up and ongoing support to ensure that digital games and simulations will not only excite and entertain, but also motivate and educate.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Correctly asserting that science education in the US is uneven at best, this timely and informative publication of the influential National Research Council of the National Academies offers a cognitive science, research-based perspective on the use of simulations and computer games to enhance and improve opportunities for learning. Drawing on the expertise of individuals from a wide spectrum of educational and commercial perspectives, who met at a recent workshop to explore the connections between learning theory and gaming/simulations, this publication offers a comprehensive yet concise snapshot of the field. An important educational aim of this rapidly expanding field is to spark student interest and motivation while fostering an understanding of science processes and concepts. The chapter that addresses assessment opportunities within this domain was most welcome, and might have been more extensive given the realities of today's classrooms. The project makes an important contribution for practitioners interested in gaming and/or simulations, but is chiefly valuable for researchers seeking to explore the potential of such technologies within today's informal and formal learning environments. The book concludes by presenting specific research recommendations along with an extensive bibliography especially useful for researchers. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D. M. Moss University of Connecticut