OverflOwing with wasted time

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Teacher Review for flOw

Marissa N.
Media specialist/librarian
Stonewall Jackson High School
Manassas, United States

My Grades 9, 10, 11, 12

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My Rating

Learning Scores

Engagement

Pedagogy

Support

Classroom feedback

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.