While working under the tight deadline of two weeks during a difficult final exams period, I learned how to prioritize features to produce a final MVP that fully addressed the pain points of the user. This capstone project was both a challenging and rewarding experience.
From children who didn’t want to stop playing with Mission Countdown to parents who expressed that they wished they were able to use this app when their children were younger, we received very positive feedback from our users. In the TEACH section of this website, we have provided a vast array of background information, activities, discussion starters, primary source documents, suggestions for further reading and research, and other resources to assist in contextualizing missions for students and helping them to understand the difficult choices and circumstances faced by Americans of different backgrounds.Mission Countdown was created to address the problem of connection between parents and children, accounting for the unique challenges that they face through a delightful and playful platform. In addition to serving a growing base of more than three million users in all fifty states, Mission US has garnered praise from educators, parents, students, and critics, and received endorsements from Common Sense Media, the Parents’ Choice Award, the Japan Prize for Educational Media, the International Serious Play Awards, and the Games for Change Award for “Most Significant Impact.” Research has shown that the series increases students’ history knowledge and skills, and is especially effective for reaching struggling learners who have difficulty learning from a textbook.īefore integrating a mission into the curriculum, we strongly encourage parents and educators to preview the entirety of that mission themselves, and make certain it is appropriate for their children/students and community. We also conduct formative testing with diverse students, and involve educators who help ensure that the material is developmentally and academically appropriate for children in the target age group, grades 5-8. The games are sophisticated interactive narratives grounded in historical scholarship, developed in collaboration with community stakeholders and scholars who are experts in the historical periods that are depicted. The missions are not simulations, nor truly games in the sense that there is no “winning” or “losing,” nor do users get a score or grade. Mission US is part of an expanding body of “serious games” that immerse users in historical and contemporary problems in ways that encourage perspective-taking, discussion, and weighing of multiple kinds of evidence. Developed for use by middle school students in the classroom and beyond, Mission US is a deeply-researched, award-winning educational media project with proven positive impact on history learning.
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