Do you ever wonder why your child can sit in front of a screen playing Minecraft for endless hours; however, sitting down to complete half an hour of math can be as difficult as getting them to the dentist? 

What is it about games that can both engage and teach our children simultaneously? Is it magic? Sort of! 

Drawing from decades of research in the field of educational psychology we know that there are many attributes of game play that match best practices in the learning sciences, such as boosting learning and engagement while having fun. Over the next several weeks we’ll share the most exciting theories of human learning and discuss how they are enacted during game play to actively engage players and ensure learning.

Starting today we’ll talk about what happens when the player is so deeply entrenched in game play they ‘lose themselves’ and then we’ll move on to talk about how the nature of the challenges presented in games increases game play. In coming weeks we will discuss the power of persistence (or the success in failure) and then we’ll spend some time talking about the ways in which gaming provides feedback to encourage and deepen engagement and ultimately learning.

So buckle up, we’re going to dive deep and share our secret sauce for why Killer Snails: Assassins of the Sea, and many other exciting analog and digital games, may hold the key to a whole new educational paradigm. Game-based learning just got a new predator and we can’t wait to share the myriad ways that using Assassins of the Sea will up your game in the classroom or at home!