Mission US is an interactive adventure game designed to improve the understanding of American history by students in grades 5 through 8. Over the next several years, the project will develop four Web-based American history video games and accompanying pedagogical support materials.
To learn more about the administrative, technology infrastructure, and professional development support teachers will require to use these history video games in their classrooms, EDC is conducting an evaluation focused on how teachers integrate the game and classroom materials into their ordinary practices.
EDC researchers have already conducted two rounds of classroom-based implementation studies on Mission US: For Crown or Colony, the first game in the series, which addresses the political tensions in colonial Boston in the years before the American Revolution. The two studies included more than 20 public, private, and parochial middle-school teachers and approximately 850 students in four states, including two one-room schoolhouses in rural Montana.
EDC will continue to conduct formative evaluation as the remaining games in the series are developed.