Developmental Benefits

Kids are natural gamers. From a young age, children begin to make sense of their world through playful interaction with their environment and other children. As children grow into adolescence, games maintain their value by helping kids develop physically, socially, and cognitively.

As an extension of classroom activities, New Earth is designed to leverage the cognitive and social-emotional development aspects by providing students with opportunities to go beyond the curriculum and work in cooperation with others to build and create together.

Social-Emotional

Increased Independence

While New Earth is designed to work in groups, one of the more effective ways to earn points for their respective teams is for students to engage in Side Quests - individually guided research into a topic of specific historical interest to the student

Students choose both the topic of research and how they wish to show their knowledge

Teamwork

The core of New Earth is team competition, encouraging students to not only work towards earning more points for their team but also to support each other when they are struggling with various tasks to ensure team success

Perspective Taking

By integrating Essential Questions regarding theoretical future decisions within a historical context, students are incentivized to take various historical perspectives to evaluate the impact of their answers/decisions on potential future social and economic groups

Cooperative Creation

At the end of every unit, New Earth team members collaborate to use the points they've earned to cooperatively create a 3D virtual civilization to compete against other teams for the title of "Greatest Civilization"

Educational Engagement

With multiple access points, personalized extension activities, recognition of skills that often aren't reflected in grades, and incentives and rewards for students that may struggle academically, New Earth seeks to make learning fun for all students to keep them excited about engaging in the academic process

Cognitive

Decision-making

With a wide array of opportunities to show engagement and mastery of the content, students have numerous opportunities to decide the path of their own learning, giving them more ownership of their own education

Critical Analysis and Application

New Earth's integrated activities and Essential Questions require students to think about the Hows and Whys of historical decisions, then apply them to scenarios that have a genuine impact on the outcome of the game

Going Beyond the Curriculum

New Earth is designed to encourage students who go beyond the required curriculum by not only deepening their own knowledge but also rewarding their efforts with tangible effects that can shape the course

Physical

Physical Brain Development

By offering both "Left-" and "Right-brained" activities and access points, students' brains continue to both reinforce connections between neurons and well as grow new connections leading to increased cognitive skills and better problem-solving during a period when the frontal lobe is still in development