Our Current Project-Based Learning Challenges

Gamification For Good: Authentic Change Agency Initiatives Through Gifted Game Designs

(Coming soon for 5th-8th grades) Gamification is a 'hot-topic' in the educational field, providing a platform for multiple instructional design strategies that support gifted learners’ strategic thinking, assessment, and integration of content-specific topics. Gamification is an excellent opportunity to challenge gifted students to incorporate multiple levels of thinking that span across the content-specific domains. Gamification design aims to increase the participant’s engagement with special rules, rewards, goals, or systems. However, when students engage with a bonus level of depth and complexity, such as through the incorporation of a change agency theme, their project road map includes a deeper level of skill acquisition and civic responsibility. This allows students to see themselves as ‘influencers’ in two ways: The convergence of modalities for individual gaming strategy, and using their platform for impact as leaders and civically-minded social engineers. Through ‘Gamification for Good’, gifted students will demonstrate comprehension of the impact of a complex problem, which will encourage innovative ideas, design, and action to empower others who ‘game jam’, as critically conscious civic ‘change agents’.