Education Immersion Center
Parent Presentation: EIC Overview
13 Principals of Game Based Learning
The Education Immersion Center affords students virtual field trips wherein students engage in problem-solving and deep thinking as they perform inside a cross-functional team to accomplish narrative driven mission goals. Working with their crew mates in an interdependent network of tasks and responsibilities, students practice developing solutions and strategies to real-world problems and develop important 21st Century Learning Skills required by the modern workplace. These core competencies include collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
A core component of the EIC is the use of the Dream Flight Adventures simulator software and their curriculum.
Standards-based Curriculum
Dream Flight Adventures™ provides an incredibly broad educational experience. We blend topics from all the disciplines and emphasize real-world applications. The following 40 topics are organized according to the Framework for 21st Century Learning and are present in everyDream Flight Adventures™ mission!
Life and Career Skills
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Leadership & responsibility
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Productivity & accountability
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Cross-cultural interaction
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Initiative & self-direction
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Flexibility & adaptability
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High-stakes decision making
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Giving & following directions
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Planning
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Cost/benefit analysis
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Scarce resources & tradeoffs
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Prioritization
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Law enforcement
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Medicine
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Forensics
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Emergency response
Learning and Innovation Skills
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Critical thinking
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Problem solving
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Creativity and innovation
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Teamwork & collaboration
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Written communication
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Verbal communication
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Situational analysis
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Interpersonal relations
Information, Media, & Technology Skills
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Computers
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Music & sound
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Information literacy
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Cybersecurity
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Cryptology
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Acceleration
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Waveforms
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Additive color mixing
Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes
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Anatomy
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Immune systems
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Genetics & mutation
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Drama
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Acoustics
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Vital signs
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Navigation
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Atmospheric conditions
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Summarization
Dr. David Thornburg
This is the trailer from the Dream Flight Adventures mission Contaminant .
Dr. Paul Gee
Dr. Constance Steinkuehler
21st Century Learning Skills
Students are expected to do all the required take care of any necessary pre-mission reading and tasks including understanding the mission storyline, mission objectives, characters involved and certain crew member specific tasks such as learning how to use a spreadsheet associated with their position or read rules and procedures associated with secondary crew station tasks. Details of this information may be found on the Students page.
Additionally, as a parent you can keep abreast of some of the latest action by visiting our blog
You may download the full range of the 21Century Learning Skills standards that may be covered on any particular mission here. You can see which standards are covered in a particular mission by referring to the curriculum map for that mission.
Pandemic Mission Curriculum Map
When you are viewing the curriculum map, click on the icon in the upper right corner to expand the standards and reveal the assessment rubrics. To see the rubric in detail, double click its icon
In addition, activities include standards throughout the various subjects at school such as science, math, art, music, language arts, social studies, computer programming etc. These standards can be found here: NGSS and CCSS.
Missions last for 3 full school days and
The EIC class has 3 grading categories:
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Classwork: 70%
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Homework: 20%
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Projects: 10%
U.S. Millennials Know Technology, But Not How to Solve Problems With It, Study Says
By Michele Molnar on June 12, 2015 4:16 PM
By Guest Blogger Michele Molnar
The U.S. education system isn't adequately preparing students to use technology for problem-solving, according to a newly released analysis, which recommends what public schools and businesses can do to address that problem.
Change the Equation, a Washington-based organization promoting science, technology, engineering, and math, or "STEM" studies, looked at how American millennials—the first "digital natives" because they were born after the Internet—fared in an international study of adult skills in 19 countries.
Gaming and the Growth Mindset
According to Dr. Jane McGonigal, there are four characteristics of gamers seen across the board that showcase why gamification is such a promising avenue for developing a growth mindset.
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Urgent optimism (they believe every challenge is worth tackling)
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Social relationships (they build collaborations and trust with other players because they all abide by the same rules and have the same goals)
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Blissful productivity (happy to work hard all the time as long as it’s towards the right goals and consists of the right kind of work)
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Epic meaning (they are attached to missions with meaning and big stories, they are working on something bigger than themselves)
A study by Jennifer Aaker, a marketing professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, says that people remember information when it is weaved into stories "up to 22 times more than facts alone."
Sir Ken Robinson
An original analysis of data from the 2012 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which tested the key cognitive and workplace skills needed to participate in society.
"Yes, [millennials] can take selfies," said Linda Rosen, CEO of Change the Equation, in a presentation announcing the organization's findings this week. "Yes, they can use social media."
What they are not so capable of doing is solving high-level problems with technology, she said. In fact, 58 percent of millennials struggle to use digital tools and networks to solve relatively simple problems that involve skills like sorting, searching for, and emailing information from a spreadsheet, the study found.
Beyond that, 19 percent of the U.S. population sampled cannot categorize using technology, she said. That capability involves a task as simple as creating folders to handle the daily deluge of email.
Translated into earning capability, a person with the highest ability to problem-solve with technology is likely to earn more than double what a person at the lowest level earns, according to the organization's analysis.
At the event to announce the STEM study, Jo Handelsman, the White House's associate director for science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, offered three suggestions for schools and businesses:
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Add relevance to what is taught in the classroom by asking students to solve real-world problems, including ones that businesses allow students to tackle. "This is particularly significant for women and minorities," she said. Studies show that they have a higher need for relevance to keep them interested in STEM, according to Handelsman.
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Change how teachers teach. "So much of K-12 education is passive," she said. "It's the old-fashioned lecture model, with rote memorization." Injecting the "exciting aspect of real-world work" like coding and creation will increase students' receptivity to STEM, Handelsman said, noting that students need to learn with "hands-on, active techniques" in science and technology. Kids will "start expecting it," she said, "and teachers will come along."
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Improve the image of STEM and STEM careers. "That's an area where we have to work with the larger media," she said, emphasizing the importance of "getting images of exciting people in exciting careers" into the public's eye.
