Odyssey

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CertifiedEducation quality
08/2018
Odyssey

Odyssey

The Young Socratics
Astronomy
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Odyssey is a game for learning about astronomy and history of science through an adventure game.

Odyssey is an adventure game, where the player follows a story of a young girl through her diaries. The player solves puzzles and learns about the history of science and astronomy. The Multimodal literacy and reading comprehensions skills are a primary learning areas in the game as well. The product is for middle and high schoolers. TeacherGaming Desk offers lesson plans to use the game in classrooms.

Age groups 
Middle school
High School
Price 
One time purchase
Languages 
English
Platform 
Desktop Windows
Desktop Mac
Registration 
Required
Offline play 
Internet required
Pictures
Videos
Price 
One time purchase
Practicing multimodal literacy and reading comprehension skills is a centric part of the game. Students read a diary and they need to use the acquired information to solve problems in the game.

Practicing multimodal literacy and reading comprehension skills is a centric part of the game. Students read a diary and they need to use the acquired information to solve problems in the game.

Odyssey offers an engaging way to practice astronomy and history of science through a game. The content is well tied in the gameplay so the player can't progress without learning first.

Odyssey offers an engaging way to practice astronomy and history of science through a game. The content is well tied in the gameplay so the player can't progress without learning first.

Odyssey is a story based adventure game, where the balance between game puzzles and learning is good.

Odyssey is a story based adventure game, where the balance between game puzzles and learning is good.

Pedagogy
Educational Quality
Learning Goals

The pedagogical analysis covers how the product supports learning of the identified skills. The student’s role is assessed by four contrary pair parameters, which are selected to cover the most essential aspects on the use of the product.

Passive
Active
While playing Odyssey the student is an active problem solver. Playing requires reading the diary in the game. They need to use that information to solve the game tasks and continue with the story.
Rehearse
Construct
Lot of Information is given to students in the diary texts, but it still requires active engagement and creative thinking to find the right solutions.
Linear
Non-linear/Creative
Students are working on their own and in individual pace but the gameplay is linear and requires a certain order. The game offers some choices, but the main story path is very linear.
Individual
Collaborative
The game is played individually, but the TeacherGaming's lesson plans support discussion within the class. That way students can also get help if they get stuck with the game.

The following are the high educational quality aspects in this product.

Odyssey offers an engaging way to practice astronomy and history of science through a game. The content is well tied in the game play so the player can't progress without learning first.
Practicing multimodal literacy and reading comprehension skills is a centric part of the game. Students read a diary and they need to use the acquired information to solve problems in the game.
Odyssey is a story based adventure game, where the balance between game puzzles and learning is good.

The supported learning goals are identified by matching the product with several relevant curricula descriptions on this subject area. The soft skills are definitions of learning goals most relevant for the 21st century. They are formed by taking a reference from different definitions of 21st century skills and Finnish curriculum.

Subject based learning goals

Recognise the importance of scientific quantities and understand how they are determined
Presenting reasoned explanations including relating observations and data to hypotheses
Plan observations to test hypotheses, check data or explore phenomena
Appreciate the power and limitations of theories in astronomy
Use a variety of models to solve problems, make predictions and develop scientific explanations, and understand familiar and unfamiliar facts and observations
Understand how scientific methods and theories develop over time
Lunar orbit including synchronous nature, rotational and revolution periods, and near and far sides
Use scientific theories and explanations to develop hypotheses
Theories of lunar formation including giant impact hypothesis

Soft skills learning goals

Learning to acquire, modify and produce information in different forms
Practising to understand visual concepts and shapes and observe their qualities
Practicing logical reasoning to understand and interpret information in different forms
Practicing to find ways of working that are best for oneself
Practicing persistent working
Practicing creative thinking
Creating requirements for creative thinking
Developing problem solving skills
Practicing to look things from different perspectives
Learning to combine information to find new innovations
Learning to build information on top of previously learned
Practicing to notice links between subjects learned
Practicing to notice causal connections
Learning to understand and interpret diverse types of texts
Understanding and interpreting of matrices and diagrams
Practicing decision making
Learning to plan and organize work processes

The Finnish Educational Quality Certificate

Our Quality Evaluation Method is an academically sound approach to evaluating a product’s pedagogical design from the viewpoint of educational psychology.

The method has been developed with university researchers and all evaluators are carefully selected Finnish teachers with a master's degree in education.

More about the evaluation