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Teacher Review for flOw

OverflOwing with wasted time

Marissa N.
 Media specialist/librarian
Stonewall Jackson High School
Manassas, United States
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My Grades 9, 10, 11, 12
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My Rating
Learning Scores
Engagement
Pedagogy
Support
My Students Liked It No
My Students Learned No
I Would Recommend It No
Setup Time Less than 5 minutes
Great for Individual
Great with ELL
General
Low literacy
Special needs
How I Use It
I intended to use flOw to illustrate the life cycle and relationship between producers and consumers. However, no elements of the surreal biosphere are labelled and there is no pause for reflection. Instructions are not provided at all so students will quickly lose interest in the game and fail to see real-world application. Players of this game can move as quickly or slowly as they prefer, but there does not seem to be a measurable objective to attain.
My Take
Overall I do not think flOw would be effective as a teaching tool. On the bright side, it does not require English language proficiency, so this tool could be used with ELL students of all levels as well as students with special needs. However, the game does not seem to reinforce any science curriculum content. Students do get to make decisions throughout the game but those decisions do not seem to have any significant impact on the results of the game. There does not seem to be competition or any real attainable objective, so students will quickly lose interest.