NGSS GETS A GAME: Look out digital textbooks, there's a new game in town. In his third foray into education entrepreneurship, former Chegg and Kno co-founder Osman Rashid has set aside his textbook know-how to develop Galxyz, an interactive, self-paced mobile game that covers 3rd-12th grade science content as set forth by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Rashid and co. are banking on gameplay itself as a form of embedded instruction and assessment. “We're truly trying to blur the line between gaming and learning. There is no gaming section and then a learning section,” says Rashid.
Galxyz Intro Cinematic from Particle X on Vimeo.
Galxyz also attempts to infuse hands-on tasks into the digital learning experience. For example, as a supplement to one level of the game, users are instructed to build a slingshot from a tissue box and other common household materials.
The concept for the game stems from three observations that Rashid gathered from his 12 and 8 year-old daughters: 1) games are not very engaging, 2) content is not deep enough, and 3) a product should not require payment from parents for kids to keep progressing.
That third point is especially interesting considering there's no word on how much Galxyz will cost, but Osman hints that several pricing models will be introduced during the beta period between now and late September when a consumer-facing version of the game will be released. An education version --where teachers can customize students' learning paths based on specific NGSS standards-- is expected sometime in 2015.
