{"id":23587,"date":"2020-07-06T00:01:51","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T07:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/twomaverix.com\/?p=23587"},"modified":"2020-07-05T20:15:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T03:15:15","slug":"immersed-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/twomaverix.com\/?p=23587","title":{"rendered":"Immersed in History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Photo courtesy of James Hung, and used with permission>)<\/p><\/div>\n

“We want you…to experience history flowing around you,” says Electric Funstuff<\/a> Founder and CEO David Langendoen.\u00a0

https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/overcoffee\/content.blubrry.com\/overcoffee\/Over_Coffee_Podcast_267_David_Langendoen.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

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And that’s exactly what happens for middle-school students, as they play Mission: US.<\/a>\u00a0 But their experience will be unlike any online games–or any educational experiences–they’ve seen before.<\/p>\n

With Mission: US, players find themselves virtually “living” the life of someone about their age–in a different time period.\u00a0\u00a0 Students can experience one of five historic periods. And they’re learning about that time period in history even as they’re having fun.<\/p>\n

In each game, students take the role of an “everyday” person and make choices that will directly affect that character’s future.\u00a0\u00a0 And their game experience outcomes differ, based on these decisions.<\/p>\n

“For Crown Or Colony” depicts daily life just before the Boston Massacre.\u00a0 “Flight to Freedom” takes players to a Kentucky plantation in 1848.\u00a0 “A Cheyenne Odyssey” explores life as a member of the Plains tribe in 1866.\u00a0 “City Of Immigrants” is set in New York City in 1907. \u00a0 “Up From the Dust” presents life on a Texas family farm during the Great Depression.\u00a0 And all of these resources are free to the educational community.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Mission:US won both Teachers’ Choice Award.\u00a0 In addition, the first Mission:US experience, “For Crown Or Colony”, won International Serious Play’s Gold Award for K-12 Education.<\/p>\n

And introducing…<\/h5>\n

Electric Funstuff continues to create new Mission: US experiences.\u00a0 They’ve designed new episodes set during the Japanese-American internment of World War II.\u00a0 Work is also just about to begin on a new episode that explores the civil rights movement of the 1960s.<\/p>\n

But David and his staff are also introducing some new virtual-reality experiences.\u00a0\u00a0 Mission US TimeSnap, which they’re designing for high-school history classes, takes students onsite to pivotal moments of history.\u00a0 Once there, students inspect pieces of historical “evidence’ to support their mission.<\/p>\n

AND–TimeSnap, which is also free, will be available to educators for the 2020-2021 school year!<\/p>\n

On this edition of Over Coffee\u00ae, you will hear;<\/h5>\n