Missed the MACUL, but I can talk about one of our alum from last week...

Last week we heard from one of the MAC alum's, Adam, who using gaming and simulations in the classroom; specifically Minecraft.  Adam explained that students created their own simulations and interacted with each other.  For every big era, students were "plopped" into appropriate biomes.  Examples of such biomes include forests, tundras and savannahs and they were based on what the students had studied and they had to learn how to live in such biomes. 

In creating simulations, students also had to provide justification for their building.  In doing this, students were motivated to write and negotiate more.  Students also learned that the environment had shaped who they were and they had to do research to figure out what to do in tough situations.  For example, students in a dessert built an aqueduct to serve as a water source--and they supported this creation because the peoples of that era had the technology to do this. 

For these simulations, the teacher (being Adam) played the role of nature and counteracted whatever creations students had built.  For example, students had built a dam by the river in one simulation and left it that way overnight.  The teacher, being nature, caused a flood and explained that when you cause a dam, that water needs to flow somewhere or you'll cause flooding.  Students learned first-hand what it would be like to live in the specific biomes and eras.

I thought the use of gaming in the classroom is an excellent idea!  I know most students around the junior high and high school age play Minecraft.  Although Minecraft is a bit too new for me, I would consider trying to learn how to play it to benefit my students.  However, I wanted to think about something that is gaming and simulations that relates to science.  A game that I grew up with was Resident Evil, and I can having a zombie themed chemistry classroom around playing Resident Evil, but I am not sure how I can align that with state standards. 

Any other ideas on how to include Zombies and Resident Evil into my chemistry classroom??