"Cyberchase Fractions Quest" Now Available for Purchase!

Blast your students’ fractions skills into Cyberspace with Cyberchase Fractions Quest, now available for classroom play! After a successful summer beta launch, FableVision is thrilled to invite educators to experience the world of PBS KIDS’ popular math series Cyberchase. Third and fourth-grade students embark on an immersive journey that integrates an interactive adventure with a research-based approach to fractions contexts. The game (complete with educator dashboard for student performance tracking) and corresponding Teacher Guide are available for purchase now on FableVision Games. 

The villain Hacker and his henchbots Buzz and Delete have captured the CyberSquad and it’s up to your students to save the day. In order to save the Motherboard from his dastardly plot, students step into the role of the hero and use their mathematical sequences and problem-solving skills to outsmart Hacker. As they explore Ecotopia, Castleblanca, Aquari-Yum, and Radopolis, students play through a series of minigames and make leaf parachutes for chameleons using their knowledge of fair shares, make tacos for underwater friends by practicing adding fractions, and more!

In collaboration with THIRTEEN and Education Development Center (EDC), FableVision created this game-based learning and assessment tool to offer a holistic view of fractions as parts of a whole and ensure fractions and future STEM learning success! Cyberchase Fractions Quest makes learning fun and challenges common teaching methods by using the latest research surrounding the best ways children learn fractions. The game follows the sequence and scope of fractions learning aligned with the Common Core Standards for Grade 3 and 4 mathematical structure. As they progress through the game, students explore different contexts of fractions including area, set, and number line. Combining research-based fractions teaching methods with an engaging narrative context, this game motivates students and increases their confidence in the classroom by improving their understanding of complicated math.

Cyberchase Fractions Quest is a result of a 2.5-year-long research project as part of the IES Department of Education SBIR program. The game also features additional professional development and game integration resources that are fully customizable to each classroom’s needs, allowing for maximum fractions learning fun and success. Formative assessment and cumulative review are also embedded in the game through the problem sets that students encounter. In the state-of-the-art teacher dashboard, educators can track students’ progress through the four CyberSites, how they performed in mini-games (out of three stars), and scores in the formal assessment pieces of the game.

Curious to learn more about using Cyberchase Fractions Quest in this time of blended learning? Check out our recorded edWeb webinar here.

Get Your Classroom “Ready Now” for the School Year

The start of this school year has presented a unique set of complications and adjustments for classrooms around the world. And as with everything—creative educators and students have risen to the challenge. To ease the transition into a new era of classroom routines, FableVision joined a group of over 70 federally-funded researchers and developers to produce a series of guides to support in-class and remote teaching and learning.

The Guides to Education Technologies that are Ready Now cover topics in early learning, math, science and engineering, social studies, and special education. FableVision is proud to feature three resources: Cyberchase Fractions Quest (Mathematics Guide), Civics! An American Musical (Social Studies Guide), and FabMaker Studio (Science and Engineering Guide). All of our resources—and the other incredible resources from other organizations—were developed through an iterative process involving multiple rounds of testing and feedback from teachers and students. They are web-based and accessible on a number of devices, with a mix of free and paid content.

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Click the above image to download the guide.

Cyberchase Fractions Quest (free for a limited time)

Guide: Ready Now Math Tools
Age range: grades 3-4

CyberSpace is in trouble, and it’s up to your students to help defeat the villain Hacker! In Cyberchase Fractions Quest, students join the CyberSquad from the popular PBS KIDS series Cyberchase and play through a series of mini-games, picking up fractions knowledge and problem-solving skills along the way. Created in partnership with THIRTEEN and the Education Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology, this FableVision-developed math learning game combines an engaging storyline with a research-based approach to teaching and learning fractions that aligns with the Common Core Standards for Grade 3 and 4 mathematical structure. 

The game is a result of a 2.5-year-long research project as part of the IES Department of Education SBIR program. The beta version of Cyberchase Fractions Quest is free and available to play for a limited time on FableVision Games.

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Click the above image to download the guide.

Civics! An American Musical (free)

Guide: Social Studies Distance-Learning Resources
Age range: grades 6-7

What better way to teach middle school students U.S. history and the power of the everyday citizen in creating change than through producing their own hit Broadway musical? Created in partnership with Maryland Public Television, Maryland Humanities, and Tufts’ CIRCLE, Civics! An American Musical was inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton composition notebook and teaches civics as students analyze primary sources from the Library of Congress archives to adapt true events from U.S. history to the stage. Students select the subject matter for their musical from four different history topics—the desegregation of public schools, the National Parks, the FDA, and the Chinese Exclusion Act—and must observe, reflect, and question primary sources to ensure the historical accuracy of every aspect of the show, including scripts, costumes, and song lyrics.

Civics! An American Musical is a part of the Library of Congress’ Teaching with Primary Sources program and is available for free on FableVision Games.

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Click the above image to download the guide.

FabMaker Studio ($200 classroom subscription)

Guide: Ready Now: Science and Engineering
Age Range: grades K-8

Turn any classroom or learning environment into a maker space—and you won’t even need a 3D printer! Inspire engineering in your classroom with FabMaker Studio, a web-based fabrication tool specifically designed for the classroom. With this affordable, research-based online tool, students can engineer, design, and fabricate any project, including designing their own Operation game board, a paper city that lights up, popup cards, and more.

The tool was developed by FableVision and the Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning and Creativity, with initial funding in 2010 by ED/IES SBIR. To purchase your copy now and to learn more tips on how to use FabMaker with distance learning, visit FableVision Learning’s website.

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For more details and to learn more about the other resources in the guides, check out the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)’s blog.

July FableFriday: Bill Tally, PhD, Senior Researcher and Designer, Education Development Center (EDC)

For over 30 years, Bill Tally, Senior Researcher and Designer at the Education Development Center (EDC), has been using his expertise in education, interdisciplinary learning, and formative research to advance the role of digital tools in education. With a PhD in sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, as well as an extensive history of collaboration with institutions and esteemed educators such as the Library of Congress, National Geographic, The New York Times, MIT, and the Smithsonian, Bill is no stranger to the world of digital storytelling and has helped steer the merger of technology and academia on many projects. 

Bill is currently collaborating with Fablevision Studios and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) to create a revolutionary literacy game that transcends former digital boundaries in its incorporation of Augmented Reality (AR). The Phase I project will investigate how an AR/gaming approach can combat the summer slide and impact engagement for low-income third and fourth graders, and serves as a testament to the innovative, forward-thinking team behind it. 

“At a time when kids casually carry the equivalent of a supercomputer around in their pocket and can do their homework in the Cloud, there’s no magic bullet when it comes to deepening learning for all kids,” shares Bill. “Deploying tech tools in ways that actually make a difference for learners and teachers still requires the collaborative work of great curriculum designers, creative storytellers, artists, programmers, and cognitive and developmental researchers.” 

Get a behind-the-scenes look at Bill, the extraordinary team he works with, and his passion for pairing education with technology! 

Tell us a little bit about your role at Education Development Center (EDC) / the Center for Children and Technology (CCT) and the work you do. 
EDC is a not-for-profit R&D firm dedicated to improving education and health across the country and the globe. I’m part of a group of researchers, educators, and media designers in our New York City office. The Center for Children and Technology works to understand how digital media can play positive roles in kids’ lives and learning, both within and outside of the classroom. 

Seymour Papert with LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Kit
Photo credit: MIT Media Lab

You’ve spent your career studying how digital tools and media can improve learning experiences. What initially drew you to this field, and how has it changed over the years?
What drew me to educational media research — way back in 1983! — was the chance to join a remarkable group of developmental psychologists, teachers, and media designers who had assembled at Bank Street College, a progressive school of education in NYC and home to one of the first ever educational media R&D labs. This group not only focused on the computer’s potential to improve learning and schooling, but they were innovatively asking how education can change computing — how the developmental needs of children and the needs of educators can shape the new technologies being developed. It was an exciting place to land. In my first week, I was showing fifth graders rough cuts of a science adventure show to see how they grasped the storyline and concepts, and sitting in on game design sessions with scientists and programmers. 

What I’ve noticed is that in 1983, the Apple II’s blocky green pixel resolution was the cutting edge of educational innovation; yet at the same time, Seymour Papert’s Mindstorms was getting teachers across the country excited about teaching youngsters to program computers in an intuitive, playful way. Today, our games, simulations, and teaching tools have far greater verisimilitude, responsiveness, and power (hail VR and AR!), but the project of helping kids become computational thinkers hasn’t advanced very far; it’s still an exciting frontier. 

What makes game-based learning media unique, and why do you think it is so effective at engaging with young people?
There are many kinds of games, and they work as learning media in different ways, but there are some common elements across them. At their best, games are patient, generous teachers. You can try over and over and they will not get bored or frustrated with you. They put you and your actions at the center — things only happen based on choices you make. They give you feedback that you can use to get better. In addition, many of the most engaging games are narrative structures that invite you to imaginatively enter a world of “as if” and “what if," which our narratively-wired brains find deeply compelling. And of course, games are deeply social, so we love using them to relate to, and compare ourselves to, our peers and friends. 

What are your top tips for practical ways that media developers can incorporate research into their tools and products?
Many developers do the things that are most important — they playtest prototypes with kids to understand what is and isn’t working, and team up with teachers or parents to pilot test a game or product to see how it does or doesn’t fit in the classroom or home. But good research helps in other ways. In the planning phase, we often: 

Photo credit: Zoom In!, EDC

• Help developers zero in on the most important content to aim at by interviewing kids and teachers and scanning assessment data. In this way, we can determine the concepts and skills that kids struggle most to learn and teachers struggle most to teach. 
• Also useful is creating a logic model, a sketch that makes the team’s hypotheses about learning clear at the outset — for example, how this particular game mechanic should support the acquisition of this particular skill or concept, and why. 
• During development, it’s important to test prototypes with a range of users — not just upper middle class kids who like school— and to look beyond appeal and usability to effectiveness: What are the cognitive moves users are making as they use the different parts of the prototype? Which features are helping them build a better understanding, and which are getting in the way? What tweaks are needed? 
• Finally, it’s important for stakeholders to know if the tool or product actually works to “move the needle” of learning.

Zoom In! is a free educator resource provided by EDC

EDC has worked with the likes of Library of Congress, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The New York Times, National Geographic, and WNET, among many others. What are some universal truths you’ve observed while working with these big movers and shakers? 
An old story comes to mind: an educational guru touring a school asks each teacher she meets what he teaches, and the answer comes back, variously: “I teach history,” “I teach biology,” “I teach statistics.” “No, you don’t,” comes the reply, “You teach children.” 

While a little smug, this observation has an undeniable truth: it’s not all about the content. Each of the amazing organizations you mention began with an abundance of incredibly rich educational content — archives of primary source documents, decades of news stories and images, thousands of beautifully made television programs, games, and interactives — but has had to work hard to figure out how to configure this content for kids and teachers in ways that support effective teaching and learning. Often, this means investing in training and professional development for parents and teachers so they learn how to play, teach, and talk with kids differently through media. It turns out that digitizing and indexing rich content, streaming it to desktop and mobile devices, etc., is the easy part; helping adult teachers and caregivers use rich media to enhance kids’ learning and growth — that’s where the action is. 

After successfully completing Phase I and receiving the Phase II SBIR grant for Cyberchase Fractions Quest game, how has the prototype shown promise for improving student learning of fractions? 

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Fractions Quest lets eight and nine-year-olds play with mathematical concepts in a game world populated by Cyberchase characters and storylines they like. Our early studies have shown that the game mechanics help them grasp concepts that kids and teachers find particularly challenging— like fractions on the number line. 

What excites you the most about working with Augmented Reality technology for the upcoming Mix Libris literacy game developed by FableVision and Reading Is Fundamental?
AR, like VR, is a largely unexplored medium when it comes to education. What’s exciting to me is the chance to build and test an educational application for struggling readers in the company of some of the most creative designers, artists, programmers, and child literacy advocates in the field. 

How can schools do more to incorporate digital tools into the classroom?
The most important thing schools can do is give teachers the time and support they need to try out new tools, practice weaving them into teaching, and evaluate the results. Lots of worthwhile learning tools never get much traction in schools because teachers are not supported in running meaningful classroom pilots to discover their potential. 

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More About Bill: 

Favorite podcast: A Very Fatal Murder, Onion Public Radio
A good read: The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
Best digital learning tool: Zoom In, a free US history and writing platform for middle and high schoolers that we made! 
Nostalgic piece of children’s media: Alistair Sim’s “awakening” as Scrooge
Passion: Playing jazz piano and crooning tunes from the American Songbook
The best library to do work: Whatever local library I’m near. (Thank you, Andrew Carnegie!)

See you in DC: FableVision Travels to ED Games Expo Showcase

On January 8, FableVision will present at the 5th annual ED Games Expo hosted by the U.S. Department of Education. Bringing together the top players in educational game development and recipients of the prestigious SBIR grant, we are gearing up to showcase three of our finest examples of game-based education at work. This event follows on the Department’s continuing efforts to increase its commitment to exploring the potential of learning games and research into their effectiveness.

FableVision has been in the education and game development world for over 20 years and along the way, we have picked up some valuable lessons to inform the work we do. By working with partners like WNET, Learning Games Network, TERC, and other content matter experts, we are building better-informed experiences that leave a big impact. We are excited to bring together research, education, and play to create games that have the potential to transform education.    

Together with our sister company FableVision Learning, we are extending an invitation to see you there! Below is a preview of the games and tools we’re showcasing. Take a look, get psyched, and come by to try your hand at playing the games yourself at what is always an exciting event for students, educators, agency employees, and kids-at-heart.

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Cyberchase Fractions Quest is an immersive, story-based mobile game that engages 3rd and 4th grade students in fractions learning. Based on the latest research on how young learners best develop fractions’ knowledge and skills, and featuring the worlds and characters of the award-winning Cyberchase PBS series, players swipe, tap, and slice their way through this imaginative, challenging, and fun game. FableVision Studios produced this game in collaboration with THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET and the Education Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology (EDC/CCT). The game is a Phase II SBIR award recipient and is currently undergoing full development and evaluation as an education technology product in classrooms and schools.

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Zoombinis, the little blue guys on a logical journey, are back and this time they’re mobile. Through a partnership with TERC, a not-for-profit leader in K-12 math and science education, and the Learning Games Network, a not-for-profit game company, FableVision Studios embarked on an epic journey to relaunch the classic, beloved ’90s game Logical Journey of Zoombinis for today’s generation. Through Zoombinis, players learn important life skills including algebraic thinking, data analysis, and theory formulation in a fun and engaging setting. With 12 puzzles and four levels of increasing difficulty in each, players are constantly challenged, improving their problem-solving skills as they advance through the game.

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Fab@School Maker Studio is a web-based design and fabrication tool for students in PreK to grade 8 to design, invent, and build their own geometric constructions and working machines using low-cost materials like paper, cardstock or cardboard and a wide range of tools from scissors to inexpensive 2D cutters, 3D printers and laser cutters. Developed by FableVision Studios, Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning and Creativity, with initial funding in 2010 by ED/IES SBIR.

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ED GAMES EXPO: Showcasing Learning Games Developed through SBIR
When: Monday, January 8 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
RSVP: edward.metz@ed.gov
Free and open to the public!