Immune Attack: Video Game To Teach Kids About Cell Biology

Isaac Asimov's Fantastic Voyage is one of my favorite books ever, so I found this pretty neat: The Federation of American Scientists has developed a video game called Immune Attack to teach high school kids the basics of cell biology. The game involves navigating a nanobot through a 3D environment of blood vessels and connective tissue in attempt to retrain a patient's immune system to fight infections:

... results find that students who play the game show significant gains in confidence with the molecular science-related material and gains in their knowledge of cell biology and molecular science.

“Our most exciting results demonstrate that Immune Attack players appear more confident in their abilities to understand a diagram about white blood cells than students who did not play Immune Attack, said [Melanie] Stegman.” [...]

“The amount of detail about proteins, chemical signals and gene regulation that these 15-year-olds were devouring was amazing. Their questions were insightful. I felt like I was having a discussion with scientist colleagues,” said Stegman.

Link: Free downloadable game at the FAS | Melanie's blog post about the History of Immune Attack

Previously on Neatorama: Video Game Helps Young Patients Fight Cancer


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Hi, I tested out the game and I was surprised and impressed by the quality. I just wrote a review on it on my educational gaming blog; hope you'll check it out and offer me some comments or critique. Thanks! http://intelligenceplusone.blogspot.com/
-Frances
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I should check this out, I always like seeing new and innovative ways of education. A large problem with education is that old techniques only cater to part to part of the learning styles of students, but if this teaches students through auditory, visual and hands on learning all at the same time in an effective way, this could be quite beneficial.
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Hello guys. I'm from Brazil and I check this time everyday but it's the first time I comment here.
Keep the good work but PLEASE take off this Nokia advertismente, it makes the site look dirty and cheap.
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