Selene: A Game about the Moon

Are you a parent and your kids are just sitting around the house, bored over the summer? Are you a kid between the ages of 9 and 17? Are you an elementary, middle school, or high school science teacher and you are looking for something fun to add to your curriculum this year? Are you an educational researcher looking to see what effects video games can have on education? If you answered “YES!” to any of these questions, Selene is what what you have been looking for!

Selene is a game which challenges kids to learn about how the moon was formed. Players can construct the Earth’s Moon, then blast it with projectiles to form its surface and flood it with lava to create what you best think that the moon looks like.

For you educators, you will be happy to know that Selene meets AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and NSES (National Science Education Standards) National Standards, as well as many state curriculum standards, including the game's home state, West Virginia.

In order to play the game, you will need the latest version of Flash, an up-to-date web browser, a broadband internet connection, and a computer with a good graphics card. The game works with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. You can get away with using Integrated Graphics, but gameplay is much smoother (and faster) if you have a dedicated graphics card.

Because the game is part of a study, kids cannot directly sign up to play themselves. Rather, an adult, someone like a parent or teacher, must sign up as a “recruiter” first, and then the recruiter can generate access codes that kids can use to access the game. Any size group is welcome to sign up.

To get started, please visit http://selene.cet.edu/ to find out more and sign up.

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