Gaming company experiments at making science fun.
Jeremy Friedberg, a founder of Spongelab Interactive, an educational gaming company is pictured with another founder Andrea Bielecki, Their Genomics Digital Lab series is garnering critical acclaim with a Parents’ Choice award and a World Summit Award.
Courtesy photo
Adapted from the novel by John Wyndham, the 1962 cult favourite The Day of the Triffids is a sci-fi film that kicks off with a meteor shower so intensely bright that it robs the greater part of the world's population of its sight leaving people at the mercy of a throng of carnivorous plants known as "Triffidus Celestus" grown from meteor-borne spores."Is it science fiction or plausible reality? Do plants move? Can they eat people," said Dr. Jeremy Friedberg, one of the founders of Spongelab Interactive, an educational gaming company, as he described the recently launched series of educational games about biology called Genomics Digital Lab (GDL).
The series, which explores our connection to plants, their connection to their environment and the inner workings of their cells, uses the movie as part of a case study that encourages kids to think about biology.
"But in a pop culture-relevant way," said Friedberg at Spongelab Interactve's headquarters at the corner of Bathurst and King streets.
'Bioschool Musical,' which delves into the food we eat and the concept of how fragile our food system truly is, is another example of a case study the series provides. The "Genomics" games, a combination of the words 'gene' and 'chromosome,' are geared towards teens in grades 7 through 12. They were created around the story of energy, Friedberg explained: how plants harness energy from the sun, how cells use that energy and how we use the energy from plants for our food, fuel and a better environment.
Friedberg, who grew up in Toronto and now lives in the Dufferin Street and St. Clair Avenue area with his wife and two young children, earned a doctorate in molecular genetics and molecular biology. The idea for instructional video gaming was born out of his experience as a teacher when he was a graduate student.
"At the high school level, one of our biggest problems across North America is that enrollment in science is tanking, especially among girls," he said. "We started Spongelab to meet the need to get people interested in science."
Passionate himself about science, Friedberg loves to teach the subject and wanted to create a game that would immerse players in the environment. Exploration and critical thinking are just two of the objectives. GDL makes it exciting for students to learn, but also makes it easy for teachers to implement into their classroom curriculum.
"We help communicate science to a variety of audiences," Friedberg said.
Recognizing the instructional potential of video gaming and that there's a generation of learners hard wired to play, GDL is entirely web-based.
"We take great efforts to make it as high quality as possible in terms of visual, audio and soundtrack," Friedberg said.
Comprised of 'Intro Level,' 'Intermediate' and 'Advanced,' the series starts off with a dying plant that players must figure out how to keep alive.
"You get clues, make choices," Friedberg said.
The challenges in GDL allow users to "play the biology" to illustrate concepts such as photosynthesis and respiration, using engaging animations, games and scenarios. The games are based on trial and error, and grow progressively more challenging for learners.
"It's where real ownership happens," Friedberg said. "This game takes 30 to 40 minutes for students to figure out. We designed it to work in a real-world classroom. You don't play this game once, you keep coming back to it."
And, it's designed so that teachers can keep track of their students' progress.
"It's a really good way to determine 'are they engaged?' Friedberg said.
The program is garnering critical acclaim. GDL was awarded a 2009 United Nations World Summit Award for best e-content in the e-Science and Technology category. Later this month, GDL will be honoured with a Parents' Choice Award in the website category. It's receiving rave reviews from players as well.
"I remember studying very basic cell biology and being bored to death, but the fact that it was an interactive computer game you could get your hands on and see direct results of too much sun and not enough sun was very pertinent in this day and age when folks are so far removed from the plant and the planet," said Malvina Martin, vice-president of specials development at National Geographic TV, in a statement.
For Friedberg, there's nothing more thrilling for him than to see kids get excited about science.