When I started reading DeeDee’s post, I was drawn in by the question about vomit and dirt flavored jelly beans. I just had to check out her game. Then she explained that she was teaching about dichotomous keys. I have been trying to come up with other ideas of how I could use Twine in my Biology classes. I had used Twine in one of my other courses to create a game based on the circulatory system. Using it for dichotomous keys seems like such an obvious idea based on the structure of the game, and yet I hadn’t come up with the idea before. I am definitely stealing this for the next time I teach the topic.
I thought that it was a good idea to use the jelly beans from Harry Potter as the basis of the game and learning about dichotomous keys. Students know about and can connect with Harry Potter. Using a variety of effects and media in the game: coloured font, font effects, photos, sounds, and video clips, as DeeDee did, is effective at engaging learners.
When I approached this task, I considered trying to make another educational game, but then I decided to have a bit of fun and do something entirely different than what I would normally do. I appreciate the effort that DeeDee put into her game to make something that was both useful for her as teacher, but also a fun, educational experience for her students.