Community reviews for Sprinkle!

If you've watched students play Angry Birds - they are fully committed to the task of winning. With Sprinkle - it's a similar concept with several important perks. Because it's conceptually similar to Angry Birds there are no instructions - students get the hang of it quickly - a very short learning curve. The focus is saving homes by putting out fires. Ahhhh! We are now dealing with 21st Century critical thinking and problem-solving skills within a physics-driven environment. This is not a standalone game. A good science teacher will have taught some basic concepts first and then use Sprinkle as a catalyst to engage students in seeing the concepts in action. Teachers will have to get creative so that students do not simply see Sprinkle as a game. To win at the various levels of the game, students need to have dialogue - and as such, the game can be paused. How many fires are there? In what order should they be extinguished? How can objects be moved to accurately and speedily direct the water towards the flame(s)? Which objects provide leverage to direct the water towards the flame(s)? If students fail in their attempt, they can try, try again - hopefully with some guidance from the teacher. Teachers can use the game via projector to guide the dialogue; then move students to small groups where peer support is required, reinforced, and rewarded. Sprinkle allows instruction to be interdisciplinary. Students can write about how they "solved" the problem in English Language Arts. In Math class, teachers can provide word problems regarding how many gallons of water could be required to extinguish a small fire or even use geometry to calculate perimeter or area of the objects used to leverage the water. And in Social Studies, students could look at the impact of loss due to fire upon a community. Thematically, Sprinkle is different from Angry Bird and should generate alot of interest from the students. It's up to the teacher to creatively integrate it within the curriculum.

Sprinkle is a great casual physics game. The theme of rescuing people is positive, and the gameplay is simple to master. The physics seem to be realistic, although I have wondered sometimes if the water is really moving within realistic gravitational constraints. There is no instruction regarding the physics used in the game, no assessment of a student's understanding, which is the greatest drawback if you intend to use this in a classroom. Of course, the game doesn't seem to be designed to go in the classroom. In a nutshell, the game is a great game...classroom use is likely to be limited.