This year’s winner in the Best Mobile Serious
Game category of the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge, U.S.
Army STARS: Elements is an innovative free application for high school
chemistry teachers to help their students learn the foundations of chemistry in
a fun way.
Developed by Army Game Studio, the Serious Game
is available for iOS,
Android
and WebGL capable browsers. Through interactive models and challenges players
can build their own atom, play a game to learn about chemical bonds, explore
the periodic table, and test their chemistry knowledge.
In addition, easy to use lesson plans and
teacher guides are available at http://usarmystars.com/lessons to help
integrate STARS: Elements into the
classroom.
The Army partnered with several school systems
in the development of this application including Madison County Alabama High
Schools and Tennessee Tech University. Through these partners, they have
been able to test the Serious Game with the target audience and have received very
positive feedback from both the students and the teachers.
STARS: Elements offers four main areas to explore - Periodic Table, Atom Builder, STARS Challenge and SmashBond. In short, the Periodic Table feature shows the interactive periodic table and information about each of the elements; the Atom Builder feature presents the atomic structures of the elements; STARS Challenge reviews the players’ knowledge of elements and bonding; and the SmashBond game teaches basic molecular bonding based on the Octet Rule by creating ionic and covalent bonds.
A tom Builder
STARS: Elements offers four main areas to explore - Periodic Table, Atom Builder, STARS Challenge and SmashBond. In short, the Periodic Table feature shows the interactive periodic table and information about each of the elements; the Atom Builder feature presents the atomic structures of the elements; STARS Challenge reviews the players’ knowledge of elements and bonding; and the SmashBond game teaches basic molecular bonding based on the Octet Rule by creating ionic and covalent bonds.
Please find below further details for each area.
Periodic Table
STARS: Elements provides a
fully Interactive Periodic Table
listing of all known elements. Initially, only the element’s atomic number and
symbol are displayed. However, hovering over an element pops up a field
displaying the element's full name, atomic number and properties.
INTERACTIVE PERIODIC TABLE
The interactive Periodic Table presents each Element Name,
Atomic Number, Atomic Radius, Ionization, Electron Affinity, and
Electronegativity.
Other information related to the element is
contained within the Element Info that includes a variety of facts and
attributes of the element along with the element's Bohr model. The electron
shells and the nucleus of the model may be selected to highlight additional
information. Selecting from the list of electron energy levels allows the
student to view the specific number of electrons in that energy shell.
The Atom
Builder is a model where the student can create and manipulate atoms within
a 3D environment for purposes of exploration, discovery, and learning. It is
intended to reinforce and help visualize the particulate nature of matter.
Students are free to add/subtract protons,
electrons, and neutrons as desired. As protons are added or removed the element
changes as appropriate. If an ion or isotope is generated, this is indicated;
also, the generated atom is identified as stable or unstable, based on nucleus
stability.
ATOM BUILDER
Students can create elements in real time by adding and
subtracting neutrons, electrons, and protons. The students discover the
relationship between the composition of the elements through these subatomic
particles.
SmashBond
The developers consider the SmashBond game design the most
innovative aspect of the app because the learning objective is a byproduct of the
gameplay itself.
In the SmashBond
game, students are challenged to combine elements on a grid in such a way that
each atom has eight electrons in its valence shell (or in the case of hydrogen,
only 2!).
This matching style game is designed to help students learn
the fundamentals of how elements bond to create compounds based on the octet
rule and Lewis dot structure.
The STARS Challenge
The STARS Challenge allows students to test themselves on what
they've learned from using the STARS: Elements app. In this collection
of challenges, students are presented with 10 exercises/questions on the three
categories of knowledge referenced in the app (Periodic Table, Atomic
Structure, and Bonding).
This
collection of challenges is designed to evaluate and reinforce the core
chemistry principles in STARS: Elements including octet bonding, the structure
and organization of the periodic table, key facts, and uses of elements
U.S. Army STARS:
Elements is part of the Army’s commitment to maintaining the American youth well
versed in the STEM fields.