Story Snitch
At Comini, we often talk about how learning activities need to allow kids to see the bigger picture to make it fun, to make it meaningful, and to make it stick. For instance, a lot of learning-to-read literature and activities focus far too much on the procedure: decoding phonics and letter-sound mappings. While that is important, to only do that without allowing kids to experience the joy of the big picture –: understanding stories, imagining new worlds– can make it boring and frustrating. And this is true for any kind of learning where abstractions–things we cannot really see, feel, and touch in the real world–are involved. This is often why learning to read or learning math becomes frustrating or frightening. Too much procedure, not enough big picture. We are changing that by crafting our own games that are designed from the ground up to allow for the interplay of both. Here’s Story Snitch.
The goal here is to make up interesting stories using the words presented. Players can score by remembering all the words they used in the story. The trick here that leans on the neuroscience of learning is that the act of construction of a story, of a narrative itself, helps them remember the words better. The better the story we make up, the more likely we are to remember the words we used in it. Even if we are distracted. We put all these elements together to make a fun game where they get points for the words they remembered, and penalized for the ones they don’t.
And the most interesting aspect? The mechanics of reading are touched upon throughout, but not without explicit focus on it. The kids loved it!
How this enables learning
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Make learning stick with the big picture trick.
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Fun and meaning: The secret glue to making learning stick.
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Procedure and play: The balancing act that makes learning stay
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Stories: The magic threads that stitch learning into memory.
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Gamify to amplify: Prop up learning with the power of play.
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Neuroscience-infused design: The strategic way to make learning shine.
Have fun stitching stories with words!
Using science to make a smarter game
Ever wonder why you can remember OTPs while you need them, while almost surely forgetting them seconds later. Learning involves actively forgetting too. Imagine walking around with the burden of having every OTP still in your memory. OTPs use what scientists call your working memory. When we are reading something or doing something without actively engaging, we also use this, but it goes out as quickly. To make it stick, we must try to actively connect what we are experiencing with what we already know. And to integrate these two. And that is what this game does!
We are releasing an online version too
Physical games are great social fun. Online versions are infinitely extensible. Why not have both? That's exactly what we are doing. Please sign-up to receive updates about the card game and the online version.
