A fun, physics-based building game that encourages critical thinking.

First off, the game is absolutely gorgeous! Even the hints are presented in an interesting eloquent if not cryptic way. There is an engaging storyline and each "chapter" leads to more answers. It is very self-motivating in order to uncover different powers for your "goo balls" and to go through each season to progress the story. However, classroom application is more difficult. There are definitely different lessons to be learned within the game having to do with engineering, angles, side measures, forces of gravity, equilibrium, the scientific method (if you are brave!), etc. But all of these lessons are difficult to implement within a whole class or even small group setting. To be frank, the fact this game is so self-motivating makes teachable moments difficult because the last thing that students want is to slow down the game for more discussion or lecture. Plus, you will have students progress in the game much faster than others. This type of game will appeal to your typical "gamer" but may not hold the attention of others who aren't motivated by levels or obtaining different powers for their goo balls. To be completely honest, learning the game as a teacher is VERY time consuming. But perhaps, that is a good thing if we want students to lead the learning here. There are definitely opportunities to encorporate learning (presenting questions to think about before game play, class discussions, multimedia presentations, etc. but ultimately there are better ways to present the educational material that this game touches upon.

World of Goo is a really cool game about building structures with different building materials (or types of goo balls). It's a great way to get younger students interesting in building and structural engineering and then transition into real-world materials, their properties, forces and structures.