Serious games for chemistry

Hi all,
After several years of Flash development for college-level chemistry, I'm on a search for the next insanely great thing ... which brings me here.

Do you know of any Unity-based games for science ed?
Also, can you point me to some examples of different gaming experiences? I'm not really looking for a first-person shooter but for other interactive environments that may be conducive to teaching organic chemistry, drug design, and other fun stuff. Thank you!

Best,

 

One example I know of is Forest Johnson's atomic physics simulator.

--Eric

 

there's this as well:

http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=3756
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=3952

: )

 

Cassie 3D

The above is a visualization of information related to the Cassini satellite in orbit around Saturn. And while I don't have a web link to share I know that others are using Unity in the education space as well. For example, I did a two-day training with instructors from University of California at Davis so they could use Unity to make plant gene research simulations for their students.

So yeah, it's definitely possible!

 

As a former teacher I'm interested in using 3D games for teaching as well as entertainment and have been developing a prototype of a chemistry-based game designed to foster an interest in chemistry, rather than teach a specific set of learning goals.

Basically the player has to collect atoms from within various spaces and use them to construct required molecular forms in order to fulfil a set of missions which are provided by the game story and its context.

I wanted to create a game where the learning was implicit within the game's core mechanics, rather than tacked on to a generic game's challenge/reward cycle. I also wanted the game to have a narrative structure and for it to reward player creativity.

So the game is not Unity-based (although the next iteration should be) and focuses on a younger age group than the one you are interested in, but I thought you may be interested in viewing another approach to game-based chemistry learning.

The prototype website is up at http://www.atomic-game.com/. The demo is a work-in-progress so unfortunately doesn't include the construction mechanic, but hopefully you'll get a feel of the game.

Dan

 

hi

you should loo into making this "course content" on the iphone.
I did now several projects on the iphone with the unity engine.
If you are interested we could meet and see what you need in
a workshop/coding to get setup for your unity chemistry project.
And maybe see if you can port this as course content to the iphone/itouch
so you could sell it in the itunes store

carl callewaert