Media Literacy: Creating Animal Games

In this project, Science meets Media Literacy and Community Service!

In December, Mrs. Black was approached by Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary about assisting with the creation of some educational presentations they could use in schools and summer camps. Over the holidays, she went to Woodlands and met with the founder and a board member. Mrs. Black, Ms. Melichar and Mr. Smith reviewed the Ontario Science curriculum expectations for Grades 1-8 and created a framework for presentations. They decided that it would be fun to include some sort of food web type game in presentations for Grade 4-6 students, and Mrs. Black thought of a way to involve our class in game development.

Grade 1 and 2 students need to learn about animals as part of their Science program, and so do Grade 4 students. Mrs. Black met with the Grade 1/2 Science teachers at our school, to find out when their animal units were scheduled, and to ask if they would be interested in having our Grade 4 and 5 students develop games for younger children, to teach them about animals. Everyone thought this was a fun idea.

Educational game creation fulfills Grade 4 expectations in Science (habitats and communities) and Grade 4 and 5 expectations in Media Literacy (create media texts for a specific purpose and audience).  We developed the following success criteria for our project:

Here are student groups completing animal research, working on rough drafts of games and receiving peer feedback, in writing, to ensure that they covered the success criteria:

These photographs show students testing each others' finished games:

NEXT STEPS:

• Mrs. Black will take our research notes and the games we created to her next meeting at Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary. The adults will use our work to help them develop a game for Grade 4-6 students, to use as part of a school or camp presentation. 

• When the Grade 1/2 students at our school study animals (in May) we will teach them how to play our games, to help them learn what they need to know about animals. We will also be their mentors during some outdoor "field work" sessions on the schoolyard.

Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.