Planet Quest Missions is a game I've created and designed for kids in Middle School in order to teach them important concepts through a cooperative, collaborative, creative, competitive and intricate game.
Main aspects:
Create a character:
Determine the "House" of your character. This is determined by the scientific and STEAM categories that correlate with each House.
Decide on a name and story for your character.
Draw, animate or have a friend help you sketch your character based on your decisions. (Or use beneverending.app).
2. Learn about a planet we will travel to.
Each planet highlights certain Science standards, so the more you learn about these topics, the better your character will survive on the planet.
Each planet has a setting and characters. The setting could be a dense atmosphere with constant lightning strikes and countless plants. The characters could be walking plants that wither if they get too far from water.
Each planet has a core conflict. This is the part of the game where you really need to know your science. There will either be a bad character who you are trying to thwart or defeat or there will be some dilemma or problem you are there to solve in order to help the inhabitants of the planet. (These are typically complicated problems like Earth's problems: Garbage in our oceans, sustainable energy etc).
3. Go on your mission!
Your mission involves two aspects: Story Phase and Conflict Phase. During the story phase your characters are traveling to the planet and finding information from the locals about the problem. You have to use your powers of observation to keep in mind what you learn. During the Conflict phase, you'll be directly facing the conflict and seeing if you've learned enough Science to come out victorious.
Each group of four students composes one "Ship" or team. There is one representative from each "House" in each ship. When a team fails at the mission, another team picks up where they left off. Be ready, your ship could be next!
Planet Quest FAQs
Are we playing Dungeons and Dragons?
I get this a lot. No. This is not Dungeons and Dragons. Planet Quest is loosely based on the concept of Tabletop Role Playing Games, where players develop a character and go through a storyline and "play" by making decisions. I have played Dungeons and Dragons before, but I wanted something better for my students that would be easier to figure out. All you have to know to play this game is how to roll dice, how to make decisions and how to work as a team with your scientific knowledge.
What are the "points" all about?
Students can earn points in class for anything from loaning a pencil to another student to having a good answer or being on task. These points go into my complicated "Randomizer" spreadsheet in order to pick which Ship or team gets to pick what order they go in during the mission. Sometimes it's better to be first and sometimes it's better to go last.
The points are also used for Perks and Privileges. Students within certain point bands have certain things they can do in the classroom based on their point levels. It's nothing too serious, but an incentive to do your best all the time!
There will be times when the points can be "spent" on certain things, but nothing significant.
If you (your child) have any problems with the points, please reach out. I would love to talk about it and make sure I'm handling things well.
Students can lose points, but only for refusal to participate, refusal to cooperate (with other students) or refusal to follow classroom norms.
Are there any spells or religious themes in the game?
No. I've carefully avoided anything controversial or anything that would force your child to do anything against your family values.
Morality in the game is rewarded.
Kindness in the game is rewarded.
The game is inherently nonviolent, but exciting at the same time. The conflicts are more designed around teaching different science concepts.
What happens when I "fail" or "die" in the game?
This just means it's someone else's turn to play.
You will be able to bring your character back in the next mission, or even in the same mission if everyone else "fails".
Failure in my classroom is just a part of the process of learning. I fail, you fail, we all fail and learn from our mistakes.
Do the "Missions" replace the tests?
Think of the missions as ways to learn and practice what we've learned.
I don't want your grade to depend on the choices of people on your "team" so we'll do individual tests that actually affect the grade.
Scientific Method! This is how to win the game!
How does the game work?
Introduction:
Setting: we talk about where we are. (Example: we are on the moon.)
After the introduction, a Problem occurs. (You realize that there's a hole in your spacesuit.)
Problem/question: following the steps in the Scientific Method, we encounter a problem or question we need to answer/solve. (There is a hole in your spacesuit, what do you do?)
Every "researcher" looks it up while your team discusses optional responses. (Maybe the suit was faulty to begin with, maybe you hit a rock. Researcher finds an article about it and tells the captain their info.)
Mr. Roby rolls a dice to determine what ship he calls on.
Your "Captain" responds with a hypothetical reason for the problem and an action. (We think the air needs to stay in the suit so we don't pass out, so we put our finger in the hole.)
Now, we decide if our "experiment" was successful. This process has a few steps:
Is it scientifically feasible?
Is the team successful? This is determined by three factors: A. Agreement and B. Believable and C. Chance.
Agreement: if the team agrees, you all go for the plan. If two team members disagree or it's a group action and one disagrees, the plan fails, move on to the next ship.
Believable: if the solution is scientifically feasible, but not possible under the circumstances, it fails. Yes, having a space suit that fits over your current spacesuit like Ironman would be a solution, but you wouldn't realistically have that.
Chance: Mr. Roby rolls the dice, if it's 1-10 you fail, if 11-20 you succeed.
FAILURE?! If a ship or team fails, the next ship is automatically put in at the exact moment and circumstances the first team was in. They had a chance to research and now they respond. They get to learn from the first team's mistakes (if any) and hopefully build off their successes (if any). They continue until failure.
SUCCESS?! If a ship succeeds, they continue on the mission, taking note of why their strategy worked.