The River City Project

Teachers at Stafford Middle School in Plattsburgh, NY are requiring their students to go online to play a computer game. The game is part of the River City Curriculum Project out of Harvard University and supported by the National Science Foundation. Normally this wouldn't interest me all that much because I surely hope that computers are being used in school for more than keyboarding and wordprocessing. But it interests me for a few reasons.

First, the game takes place in the late 19th century in River City, USA. There's trouble in River City and it begins with a 'D' and ends with ease. It's the students job to find out what the heck is going on and how to solve the problems. Remember, this game takes place in an era where the germ theory of disease is just becoming an excepted theory.

As visitors to River City, students travel back in time, bringing their 21st century skills and technology to address 19th century problems. River City is a town besieged with health problems. Students work together in small research teams to help the town understand why so many residents are becoming ill. Students use technology to keep track of clues that hint at causes of illnesses, form and test hypotheses, develop controlled experiments to test their hypotheses, and make recommendations based on the data they collect, all in an online environment.

The objectives of this learning environment are 1) to learn the principles and concepts of science; 2) acquire the reasoning and procedural skills of a scientist; 3) devise and carry out investigations that test their ideas; 4) understand why such investigations are uniquely powerful.

The students interact with a reporter in River City named Kent Brock. Kent tells the students some things and asks them lots of questions that tests the students ability to explain, interpret, apply, give perspective, empathize and be self-aware. Students are allowed to review and critique Kent's articles before they go to press.

This sounds like it's far more than a game. It's almost like traveling back in time to obtain a real-life educational experience. It's a powerful tool because it uses "active learning" rather than passive learning. No one is lecturing you. You have to find out things on your own (with the help of other students in the multi-user environment). You can learn more about the active learning practices here at the Harvard active learning website.

BTW, there are 3 diseases attacking the good people of River City in 1890. Any guesses as to what these 3 diseases might be?