Melanie Stegman, Ph.D.

Director, FAS Learning Technologieswww.FASLearningTech.org

CEO, Molecular Jig Games, LLCwww.MolecularJig.com

@MelanieAnnS

Biochemist making games

Melanie Stegman, Ph.D.

I make games about the molecular world.

2D strategy game Immune Defense

3D game epic Cell Adventure game

I evaluate the effect of games on players.

What players learn

How players attitudes change

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Transmigration Female IAFemale Control

Biochemist making games

Immune Defense:Making Proteins as Familiar as Super Heroes.

Molecular biology education must be transformed.• We know so much, public comprehends so little, it is so important.• Intuitive learning must preceed formal education: Grade school

students must understand molecular behavior.• Misconceptions are hard to change, so teach young students

correctly.

Using video games to teach molecular biology.• Providing a gut level understanding of DNA, proteins, bacteria,

viruses, and other invisible but very well defined objects is possible with video games.

• Evaluation of learning with Immune Attack• Design of Immune Defense

Immune Defense:Making Proteins as Familiar as Super Heroes.

Molecular biology education must be transformed.• We know so much, public comprehends so little, it is so important.• Intuitive learning must preceed formal education: Grade school

students must understand molecular behavior.• Misconceptions are hard to change, so teach young students

correctly.

Using video games to teach molecular biology.• Providing a gut level understanding of DNA, proteins, bacteria,

viruses, and other invisible but very well defined objects is possible with video games.

• Evaluation of learning with Immune Attack• Design of Immune Defense

Healthcare

Environment

Genetically Modified Food

AIDS

Teenage pregnancy

Mental Health

Molecular Biology is relevant to many issues...

Healthcare Policy

Environment Policy

Genetically Modified Food Policy

AIDS Policy

Teenage pregnancy Policy

Mental Health Policy

Molecular Biology is relevant to many issues...that the average American votes on!

We know more about molecular science every day. We can’t just teach the same stuff in a fancy way, we need to teach about vast, new worlds of molecular science.

We know more about Molecules nowadays

There is more to learn

How much more?

How do you imagine your cells?

The Machinery of Life

David Goodsell, Ph.D.

Scripps Research Institute

How much do we know? We know where your

salt molecules are.

The Machinery of Life

David Goodsell, Ph.D.

Cytoplasmic protein

mRNA

Ribosome

Water

ATP

Sodium ion

Why games?Visuals are effective at teaching.Stories are effective at teaching.Familiarity makes us confident.

Who’s the best football team? People read up on this and debate the data!

How do vaccines work? Who is reading this and debating the data now?

Movies/videos tell stories and make us feel familiar with moleculesSimulations show us great detail and let us manipulate: making things concrete, making things part of our own experience. Games, however, have all this plus:

MOTIVATION, AGENCY and REPLAYABILITY

GamesMOTIVATION

…as part of the story, to save the princess, etc.

…to solve the next just-out-of-reach problem: to stay in FLOW.

AGENCY…games give the player a way to interact with the environment

…a gun, a tractor beam, a purchase panel, a scanner: the player knows what tools are at her disposal in each new situation.

REPLAYABILITY

…we want to play the game again if we get a new experience: different places

to explore, higher score, etc.

… leading to “more time on task.”

Development cycle (accumulation of data)

Keep learning associated with winning.

MOTIVATION

How to motivate players to learn to move the cell by putting ligands onto the right receptors.

What didn’t work:A tutorial that introduced terms and objects before game started. Learning the science facts outside of game play was not engaging.

What did work: Keep learning associated with winning. First several levels are “tutorial like” levels. Show player the creepy yucky E. coli. Tell them the cell will eat the E coli. Tell player to move the cell with ligands. Telling player to “Grab the ligand” when there is only 1 “grabable” object on

screen makes the task just-out-of-reach.Reward: seeing destruction of creepy E. coli that you caused!

Tutorial did not engage players in the game.

Keep learning associated with winning.

MOTIVATION

How to motivate players to learn to move the cell by putting ligands onto the right receptors.

What didn’t work:A tutorial that introduced terms and objects before game started. Learning the science facts outside of game play was not engaging.

What did work: Keep learning associated with winning. First several levels are “tutorial like” levels. Show player the creepy yucky E. coli. Tell them the cell will eat the E coli. Tell player to move the cell with ligands. Telling player to “Grab the ligand” when there is only 1 grabable object on

screen makes the task just-out-of-reach.Reward: seeing destruction of creepy E. coli that you caused!

Keeping the learning associated with winning.

Making Immune DefenseAGENCYHow to make players feel like they are in control?

We created simple ways of interacting that can be used in many situations. Buying cells, changing receptors and moving molecules.

Moving Molecules is a simple yet powerful game mechanism. Like shooting, it is easy to do and can have many different effects.

We created a powerful and smart Microbot that is your ally and database and you are its pilot.

We gave the player the ability to scan objects which lets them ask for info when they want it. The info needed to win = the science.

Microbot C85 is a cool helpful little drone-bot.(only 25 microns wide)

projects a GUI onto our view screen so we can pilot betterMicrobot gives us a ceiling and a dashboard to make us feel like we are in the body with the bot!

Ceiling

Dashboard

cells

bacteria

Microbot C85 is a microscope, just like a regular light microscope. We look through Microbot C85’s camera and

we see things that anyone can see through a light microscope.

In the cell we can see the nucleus and some vesicles.

The nuclear shape tells us this is a Neutrophil.

The vesicle that looks like a kidney bean is the “Poison Pod” and the poison pod is where bacteria are destroyed.

Being able to identify the cells and to know when the bacteria is destroyed is important to the player.

This is a Neutro-phil chasing a bacterium on a microscope slide under a light microscope.

Neutrophil is a white blood cell, eater class. “Eater cell” in Greek means Phagocyte

The bacterium is moving randomly, just floating in the blood.

There are complement proteins on the slide (It is a whole blood prep)The complement proteins stick to the bacteria and break off to form a cloud of activated (purple) complement around the bacteria on the slide.

Follow up questions: Can we see the complement proteins? Can we see the complement receptor?Why is there still a gradient of complement for the Neutrophil to follow on the slide, why aren’t the complement proteins evenly distributed?

http://biochemweb.org/neutrophil.shtml

Watch the video here!

NanoRadar Portal Shows bacterium surface

Inflammation meter

Center PanelPurchaseFind everything you can buy here

Inflammation Bar

NanoRadar showsa Purple C protein

Our GUI

MoleculesReceptors are proteins on the surface of our white blood cells that change cell behaviors.Ligands are molecules that are floating around.Surface molecules are on the surface of bacteria and cells but they don’t change behavior.

Purple C is a protein ligand that binds to the Purple C receptor on cells. The purple C receptor becomes active because of binding its ligand and causes the cell to move forward.

LPS is a surface molecule on bacteria. LPS is not a protein, it is a sugar/fat combination, so we call it a molecule. This LPS molecule is the ligand for the LPS receptor. So ligands do not always float around.

Vocabulary can keep people from learning molecular biology. But Immune Defense players will learn these terms:

Proteins

Molecules

Receptors

LigandsSugars

Fats

Making Immune DefenseAGENCY vs. misconceptions

How to make players feel like they are in control……When the molecular world actually functions just fine without them???

Will we give players the wrong idea about white blood cells?

Misconceptions. How to avoid them? Start with a good mechanism andMake a list of misconceptions you could be introducing.Test game repeatedly with target audience

Ask them open ended questions during and after playing.

Other tools: Follow up lecture in classMicrobot’s onboard database Many misconceptions abound. All models simplify

Making Immune Defense

REPLAYABILITY

Immune Defense builds in complexity and gives the player many fun decisions to make.

Replayability.

90% of players 13+ can beat each level on the first try. Immune Defense levels are also designed so that 90% of player will get a higher score the second and third times they play and we designed several levels to have tricks, strategies, that if payers figure out and use will allow them to get the max score in the level. Score is designed to encourage less use of Microbot and also to minimize inflammation.

Killing pathogens faster, killing the pathogens that cause the most inflammation first, activating cells only sparingly and sending the least powerful cell that is still able to kill each pathogen and saving powerful cells (with high inflammation rates) after

Making Immune Defense

EatersNeutrophilMacrophageDendritic Cell

KillersNatural Killer Cells

MarkersB-Cells make Antibodies = proteins

White Blood cell groups

“Eater cell” in Greek means Phagocyte

Some T Cells are killers, too. They are called “Killer T-Cells”

http://cmgm.stanford.edu/theriot/lifehistory.movListeria inside a cell

http://cmgm.stanford.edu/theriot/movies.htm#Hits

More movies and their explanations here.

Beta release April 24

Public final release July 2014

Evaluating in schools Spring 2014

Collaborators:

Maine International Center for Digital Learning

Graham Johnson, Scripps Kenneth Coulter, Ion Medical Designs

Howard Young, NCI Caroline Pinkard, David Silvernail

Art and game programming Cosmocyte, LLC.

Development Funding:

(US) National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Evaluation Funding:

(US) Entertainment Software Association Foundation (ESAF)

Melanie Stegman@MelanieAnnS

ScienceGameCenter.org

Find games, send us your games, review games, find new audiences….

Immune Defense

Learning Objectives

Randomness of molecular diffusion

Specificity of interactions between protein signals and protein receptors

Low and high affinity interactions are different

Cells have specific functions because of their unique complement of proteins

Cells can signal to each other

Cells respond to their environment if they have the correct receptors

Regulating which proteins you have on hand is important for cell function

Pathogens have evolved to thwart our immune system

Immune Defense

Learning Objectives

Random molecular diffusion drives predictable cellular behaviorPlayer can spend Energy to change the location of molecules, and dragging

molecules closer to cells can help move them to the pathogens faster.

Player is rewarded for conserving their Energy by our scoring system:

1) Energy required to buy new cells and

2) remaining Energy is multiplied by score at end of level

Molecules are truly moving randomly, and trying to catch them makes that clear, Cells

sometimes move away from pathogens

Players learn

Cells move eventually to the Pathogen

Random motion of particles that begins at a source causes a gradient.

Immune Defense

Learning Objectives

Specificity of interactions between ligands and protein receptors

Low and high affinity interactions are different

Player is racing against an Inflammation Clock, and so is under pressure to reach

Pathogens quickly.

Player can purchase receptors that have higher affinity for the cytokine molecules, thus

moving forward faster.

NK Cells and Leukocytes will find target cells by binding with more than one receptor, and

the first receptor may let go before the second binds… which means the player is directly

thwarted by the “off-rate.”

Immune Defense

Learning Objectives

Cells have specific functions because of their unique complement

of proteins

Cells can signal to each other

Cells respond to environment if they have the correct receptors

Regulating proteins expression is important for cell function

Players purchase the correct cell for the various Pathogen types.

Players regulate which proteins are on the cell surface.

Players can avoid getting infected by down regulating the pathogen binding receptors

and can activate their cells by upregulating their activation signal receiving receptors.

Immune Defense

Learning Objectives

Pathogens have evolved to thwart our immune system

Neutrophils follow 4 steps to Detect, Bind, Eat and Kill pathogens.

Pathogens accidently evolve to avoid these 4 steps and then theyare harder to

kill.

This type of game play matching with real biology works nicely, even beyond

immunology!