A Video Game To Teach AP Level Immunology

kilrathu writes "Longtime proponents of using video games as sources of learning, the Federation of American Scientists put its money where its mouth is. FAS released Immune Attack, an educational video game designed to teach immunology to AP level high school students and combines the most current research on teaching methodologies with a 3D first-person shooter game. 'The key to the game was making sure it was fun while also covering accurate and complex immunology topics,' said Dr. Michelle Lucey-Roper, director of the FAS Learning Technologies Program. The game is free, although not open source, and can be downloaded here. Sorry, no Mac version yet."

haha

[Anonymous Coward]

she said phagocytosis!

but seriously, she says her name is something like Neisha Elam and the caption says Jessica. They can't get her name right?

Re:Way to go

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting a link to a 500 MB file. That won't be a problem ;)

http://immuneattack.info/ImmuneAttack10/ImmuneAttackSetup.exe

Re:Insert standard replies here...

[you-nix-boy]

Advanced Placement. It's a program offered by the College Board that allows high school students to receive college credit for courses completed in high school, teaching college-level curriculum, and evaluated by a test (that the College Board administers and scores). The number of credits and exact course translation toward your university is usually determined by your AP test score (on a scale of 1-5). Shaved close to a year off college with these puppies :)

Re:What does AP mean?

[ubergamer1337]

I cant tell if your being sarcastic or not, but it stands for Advanced Placement. Its a program that allows High School students to get College Credit by taking courses taught at a College level, and then taking a test which determines how many credits you get (if any).

You forgot the other reason

[Ethanol-fueled]

To pay money to inflate the living hell out of your GPA so that you can have a 5.0 GPA your senior year(yes, AP classes are one point higher than your standard prole classes). AP calculus is a good idea but classes like AP history are more like tangential trivia that you will soon forget after you pass the exam.

Re:What does AP mean?

[elnico]

It stands for "Advanced Placement," which is typically the highest level of a course offered by a high school. High scores on AP tests (standardized tests given by College Board, the same group that does SAT testing) normally translate to credit for introductory level classes at most universities in the US.

Re:Wha?

[porcupine8]

This sounds a lot like the "X-treme" fad of yesteryear. Take a few quizzes and be rewarded with shoot-em-ups between exams.

Did you actually read/view anything beyond the summary? This looks nothing like those. Absolutely nothing. It IS more of a first-person puzzle game than a first-person "shooter." In fact, if you look at the controls, [fas.org] there's not even anything to "shoot." You go through and find the necessary chemicals to activate the various parts of the immune system.

Re:Wha?

[Anonymous Coward]

Also the video introduction says they're focusing on the innate immune system. That's fine but the adaptive immune system is totally cooler and where most of the sexy research happens.

Re:Insert standard replies here...

[Zencyde]

Another Simpsons meme. : ) Nothing to see here, move along.

Re:"Sorry, no Mac version yet."

[kilrathu]

We at the Federation of American Scientists (the non-profit group that made this) are working on a way to make it run under WINE but we don't have it quite yet. We hope to have it up by the end of the month. Sorry.

The reality is we made this with a very limited budget and for that reason we have not not yet implemented a mac/*nix version yet. This is primarily a research project to show that students can learn from video games. The goal is to prove to policy makers that technology can be used to improve education. FAS is open to any feedback you can give them about the game or if you can help get it into the classroom.

If you really need a different version consider donating or joining FAS [http://fas.org/member/index.html] so that we can continue development.

Not an AP exam?

[penguins4ever]

Er, "Immunology" is not an AP subject exam: Take a look at http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/subjects.html [collegeboard.com] if you don't believe me.