Twist Education™ aims to be at the forefront of reimagining science education by producing singularly effective instructional methods embedded in adventure games. Twist Education™ is committed to building interest and excellence in science by developing adventure games that both engage and educate students in science. Its offerings are apps hosted on mobile platforms such as the iPod Touch. In the course of play, students learn complex scientific and technical concepts, gain understanding of abstract “invisible” phenomena, and have fun learning.
Henry Halff and Stephan Samuelson founded Twist Education, LLC in 2008. For 20 years, Henry had worked on computer-based adventure games that teach complex scientific and technical concepts. The results of this work are game-based approaches to promoting students’ grasp of abstract concepts, their understanding of the relationships among these concepts, and their ability to solve difficult quantitative problems.
In September of 2008, Stephan contacted Henry about his project. Stephan saw the potential of the project to excite high school students’ interest in science. For many years, Stephan had wrestled with the fact that, without generating greater interest in math and science among our young people, society would, one day, find itself with a severe shortage of scientists.
Henry and Stephan have assembled a team of talented individuals to design, develop, and field games that teach science. Their work is shaped by a number of developments in education and technology: (1) students desires and needs for mobile learning; (2) increased awareness of the need to learn science; (3) low science assessment scores; (4) educators embracing alternative learning methods; (5) the popularity of mobile learning; and (6) extensible mobile technologies such as smartphones, tablet computers, and iPod Touch all combine to create an environment that is ready for change. Twist Education™ aims to be at the forefront of this change with game-based learning tools that rely on singularly effective instructional methods.
Twisted Physics™ is Twist Education’s flagship product. This Role Playing Game (RPG) addresses all of the teaching objectives for a complete course in advanced secondary-school physics. RPGs provide engagement by immersing the player in a fantasy world. This approach imparts several qualities to the study of science that are seldom taught but that constitute hallmarks scientific practice.
Twisted Physics™ Operates at Three Levels
The Adventure
Twisted Physics™ engages the player his or her own adventure. The story of this adventure is complex enough to engage players and has, at the same time, the coherence needed to promote understanding of the unity of physics.
In Twisted Physics™ the player’s character travels through time learning physics from the scientists that shaped the discipline. She thereby gains an understanding of science that is supported by the narrative of its history.
Apps
Twisted Physics™ itself is a collection of applications (apps), each of which runs on an iOS device (iPhone™, iPod touch®, or iPad). Each app addresses a particular learning objective in the science curriculum. Each app is a self-contained adventure that constitutes a chapter or episode of the overall adventure.
Story to Domain Map
Maintaining the structure and coherence of a course, using only a collection of individual apps, is a considerable challenge. The key to meeting this challenge is in mapping the times and places in history that the player visits (our story) to the instructional domain (advanced secondary-school physics). The Figure below shows a fragment of this map for Twisted Physics™.
Note that the structure of the course has three levels: Topics (such as Kinematics), Lessons (such as One Dimensional Motion), and Objectives (such as Vertical Motion). Twisted Physics™ uses the story (the history of science) to maintain the coherence within and among topics.
Paper Play™
The game provides for extensive problem-solving practice in a format called Paper Play™. Problems in Paper Play™ are presented in a simple, engaging, two-dimensional format that promotes understanding complex concepts.
Paper Plays™ offer a number of instructional techniques. Among these are demonstrations of problem-solving methods, exploratory environments where students can discover problem solutions, and challenges where students can consolidate skills and gain confidence in their abilities. Learning is also supported with visualizations that make abstract concepts visible and with informative feedback that help students learn from their own performances.