MIT Creates The One Video Game You'll Be Thrilled To See Your Kid Get Hooked On

"As game designers," MIT's Scot Osterweil says, "we're convinced that game playing is a lot like science: There is problem-solving, exploration, collaboration, hypothesizing, testing and learning from your failures.” Osterweil, research director of MIT’s Education Arcade, is one of the masterminds behind a new science game made for the Smithsonian Institution. The game is a National Science Foundation-funded experiment in "alternative science education." Over many years, after conducting many surveys, the NSF made an intriguing conclusion: A good deal of the public's understanding of science derives from outside of the classroom. NSF developed a program in "Informal Science Education," and Osterweil's team--jointly housed by MIT's Comparative Media Studies program and its Scheller Teacher Education Program--nabbed an NSF grant to work on a game, back in 2009. Two years later, more than 5,000 students are playing the game, Vanished, and leaving about 4,000 posts a day on the sites forums.