“What kind of game is this? Is it asking you questions about Native Americans?” These were the first questions we received as we explained to a group of third-graders that they would be playing an educa- tional game. When we told the student that it was not a quiz-style game, he responded, “It’s just like a regular game?” Children as young as eight are familiar with drill-and-practice edutainment software, and this student at least is clearly dubious of them. As educators and scholars, we know that positive learning outcomes can come from “regular games” when their design integrates good practices of game design and the science of learning (e.g. Clark and Mayer, 2011; Klopfer et al., 2009). In this paper, we describe the development and evaluation of a game that aligns gameplay and learning objectives—a game designed to promote learning through enjoyable competitive gameplay.
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