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App review by Jenny Bristol, Common Sense Education | Updated September 2014
The Immune System Game

The Immune System Game

A nice but non-essential supplement to learning about infection

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Grades
6–9
Subjects & Skills
Science, Health & Wellness
Platforms:  Linux, Mac, Windows
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Take a look inside

6 images
Work with the immune system to help defend the body.
Learn about the immune system before playing the game.
Learn about the body's tools for protecting itself against infection and about scientists who studied them.
Instructions are simple and the game is easy to learn.
Move granulocytes to the bacteria to keep the body healthy.
Players are congratulated when they finish a level.

Pros: Easy to learn with a simple premise, and solid grounding in science.

Cons: It's very difficult to beat, instructions are sparse, and text is very small.

Bottom Line: It's worth students' time as an initial demonstration of key bacteria-fighting concepts, but the lack of substance and in-game instruction requires extension.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Teachers can use it to demonstrate how immune system cells fight infection in the human body. Students can review the additional educational material on the website and see the cells in action. Teachers might consider having students explore other games that touch on the same topic, such as Virulent or You Make Me Sick. Students could break down the key concepts each game covers, discuss how each game is or isn't successful, and then choose the concepts they're most interested in and design their own games. This could be done through basic written design documents and paper prototypes.

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Standards:

Editor's Note: The Immune System Game is no longer available.

In The Immune System Game, or Immune System Defender, players must work quickly to fight infection by moving immune cells to the part of a blood vessel infected with bacteria before it spreads. At the first level, players fight infection with one type of immune cell, the granulocyte. In level two, they get several more types of cells to fight infection with. In addition to the cells that are "eating" the infection, players must send immune cells to parts of the body where they'll do the most good. It's very difficult to both keep the infection under control and send immune cells to other parts of the body. When students finish both levels, they can see their scores and the overall high scores. Unfortunately, the experience feels like more a demo than a fully realized game, since what students will be doing has little substance or variety. To make matters worse, graphics are outdated, text is small and difficult to read, and bugs (technical errors) occasionally keep it from working properly.

It demonstrates how immune cells fight infection, and the website provides useful resources that teach kids how the immune system works to protect the body. Some resources are accessible from within the game, and students can click immune cells to learn about them. As for gameplay, basic instructions are given, but no help is available to let students know how to improve or what to do if they're stuck. It uses actual immune system vocabulary, so students can pick up quite a bit if they make the effort.

Overall Rating
Engagement

The concept is quite interesting, but implementation is lackluster and outdated, and students might lose interest as the infection spreads faster than they can fight it.

Pedagogy

There's good demonstration of the concepts, but they're not reinforced or elaborated effectively. It'll require outside supplementation.

Support

Includes basics for how to play, but lacks help when students get stuck. Resource materials aren't easily referenced while playing.

Common Sense reviewer
Jenny Bristol Other
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Key Standards Supported

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

  • HS-LS1-2

    Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.

  • MS-LS1-1

    Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells, either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.

  • MS-LS1-3

    Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.

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