Pathogen Patrol builds upon PLTW’s Biomedical Science curriculum by integrating medically accurate experiences into immersive environments. Pathogen Patrol will be a key learning experience in the Human Body Systems course within the PLTW Biomedical Sciences pathway starting with the 2023-2024 school year.
Hard-to-measure higher-order thinking skills in learning standards, such as critical thinking, systems thinking, and creativity, increase in the level of deep thinking they demand as students move through grades—”but when we look at the reality of what’s in most curricular instructional materials, we see a tendency towards more of the lower roads of thinking,” said Rebecca Kantar, vice president of education at Roblox.
While Roblox’s education team historically focused on Roblox Studio, it had an opportunity to meet a growing demand for tools and methods to get at deeper learning standards. “That was a dominant call for students to do more of the type of thinking that they have to do as adults, and that representative match of what we’re spending time on in school being similar to what we have to spend time on as adults,” Kantar said.
The gaming concepts inherent to Roblox’s platform come in handy for students as they tackle more challenging learning concepts.
“Our strategy is predicated upon a notion that kids love Roblox and find it engaging. They already want to be there, so if we’re able to delight them with a realization that, [while] what you’re doing in Project Pathogen or in school [isn’t] not always pure fun, it’s challenging in a way that feels rewarding,” Kantar said.
Concepts that are native to gaming—perseverance and social aspects—make for a motivational learning experience.
“What’s important about Roblox is we already have a ready and willing community of young people using the platform who are used to persevering through challenges, particularly with their friends. They’re used to iterating, used to their avatar exploding into 100 pieces and getting right back up and trying again,” Kantar said.
“If we can take advantage of that norm and expectation and translate it to [PLTW’s Project Pathogen] experience, but also capitalize on the fact that they already expect the platform to be social, and a lot of what keeps them there and is fun is that their friends are there too, well now we have this added benefit of motivation to try hard in these experiences because you’re working with your friends, you want to stay engaged, you want to demonstrate their skill,” she added.
“Students today need to be met where they are in their education journey. PLTW sees Roblox as an important platform that offers tools and easy access from anywhere in the world to help achieve this,” said David Greer, executive vice president and chief program officer at PLTW. “Experiential learning through Roblox allows students to learn by doing in a way not possible before. They will gain enduring understandings through repeated gameplay and master complex concepts without even realizing they are learning.”
Material from a press release was used in this report.
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