Stimulating Simulations!

Simulation Games are not just for older children. Preschoolers can participate too. Visit Learn4Good and play Ballistic Biscuit.  Players help Camp Counselor Bob get through dangerous waters and avoid the obstacles on his way. Navigation is easy, the mouse is moved left or right in order to avoid collisions.

For a more real life, but still techy experience for your child, visit Storyline Online.  The site is sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild and features well known actors reading stories. James Earl Jones is not just the voice of CNN and Darth Vader. He reads “To Be A Drum” by Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson with heart and fun.

Buckleitner Message

Dear Parents,

DEEP SIMS, DEEP LEARNING:  A big day for two twelve year old boys at the Mediatech Foundation in my home town of Flemington NJ. They successfully crossed the Atlantic ocean in a 1927 Ryan aircraft called the Spirit of St. Louis. Not only that, but they flew in real time weather, updated every 15 minutes. It was a day they (and I) will never forget. They were interviewed by reporters, received advice from three commercial airline pilots, and listened to their 95-year-old grandmother recall the actual day that Charles Lindbergh completed the flight.  Unlike Lindbergh, these boys used a GPS and Google Earth for navigation, ate pizza, and watched Spongebob cartoons to stave off boredom. They also learned how lucky Lindbergh was --their flight took seven hours longer due to headwinds. We're all familiar with simulations, but deep historical simulations can take the learning a step further, making geography and history come to life. Here's the recipe if you want to do your own flight:

• Highly motivated volunteer pilots with permission slips who are at least 12 years of age. They'll need sleeping bags and lots of support.

• We used Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A History of Flight ($15 from Amazon.com). It's a four-disk install that runs fine on a Windows XP or better computer; you'll find Lindbergh's airplane listed in the Historical Flight menu. We also used a Thrustmaster TFlight Hotas X USB controller ($35, also from Amazon.com).

• Let your pilots look over the weather and decide if they want to attempt the flight in historical conditions or real conditions. If they fly in current weather, the trip can take 40 hours or more and they may encounter more storms. But they don't have to take off in the rain.

• As they fly, have them explore YouTube and watch footage from the real flight. It will have new significance. You may also want to discuss Lindbergh's controversial, and sometimes unhappy life after the flight. It's all on Wikipedia. But remember, this adventure is about the 1927 flight.

• Make sure your pilots know that crashes are OK (you can set the plane to bounce) and that what they are trying to do is incredibly difficult.

• And, if things don't go well, they can always use something Charles Lindbergh didn't have -- a pause button.

A twitter feedset up by one of the parents setup, substituted for a flight log: You can see the feed HERE  and this is  the Landing!  . Let me know if you can pull it off!

Warren Buckleitner, PhD, Editor

Children's Technology Review