A video game that teaches biology and chemistry, cell biology and nanotechnology... Immune Defense is a real time strategy game. Designed to engage 16 year old students, Immune Defense is fun for ages 10 through 110. Designed upon data about what makes people confident with molecular biology, Immune Defense is also designed to be engaging to a broad audience (casual/midcore game style). Added to this talk are 4 slides of learning objectives and how they are presented in the game.

1. How and Why a Biochemist Became
an Indie Game Developer
Melanie Stegman, Ph.D.
Creative Director
Molecular Jig Games, LLC
www.MolecularJig.com
@MelanieAnnS
@MolecularJig
See Melanie Present this at
http://youtu.be/kucqqpIuso4

2. Melanie Stegman, Ph.D.
I make games about the molecular world.
2D strategy game Immune Defense
3D game epic Cell Adventure game
I evaluate the effect of games on players.
What players learn
How players attitudes change
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
1 2 3 4 5
Transmigration Female IA
Female Control
Biochemist making games

3. A biochemist became a game dev
Why I want to teach molecular biology with games
Molecular biology education must occur younger in life so that the concepts are
learned more completely and so the general public learns them, not just biology experts.
How to demonstrate intuitive learning occurs
This talk describes my evaluation methods as well as my game design methods.
Creating an intuitive game is ideal for engaging players and ideal for teaching
complex concepts,
But assessing intuitive learning is more difficult than accessing formal
knowledge.
You can make science games, too!
Get a scientist as a partner
Get funding (This is why assessment matters)
Iterative design with a larger development team…

4. Healthcare
Environment
Genetically Modified Food
Infectious Disease
Teenage pregnancy
Mental Health
Molecular Biology is relevant to many issues...

5. Healthcare Policy
Environment Policy
Genetically Modified Food Policy
Infectious Disease Policy
Teenage pregnancy Policy
Mental Health Policy
Molecular Biology is relevant to many issues...
that the average American votes on.

6. We know so many more details…
We can’t just teach the same stuff in a fancy way,
we need to teach about vast, new worlds of molecular science.
The Machinery of Life
David Goodsell, Ph.D.
Scripps Research Institute

7. Combining electron microscopy, biochemistry and
structural biology data
The Machinery of Life
David Goodsell, Ph.D.
Scripps Research Institute

8. We know where your
salt molecules are
Cytoplasmic protein
mRNA
Ribosome
Water
ATP
Sodium ion
The Machinery of Life
David Goodsell, Ph.D.

9. The Ebola Virus A very scary sausage?

10. http://www.pdb.org/pdb/101
Art by David Goodsell
Ebola Virus
A tiny infection machine
With replaceable parts

11. Introduction to surface molecules

12. Intuitive
Formal
Epistemological
Deep understanding of molecular biology
requires time to develop
Grade school Middle School High School
Problem is that Molecules are considered abstract
and their behaviors are not introduced until high school

13. Jerome Bruner
The Process of Education
Complex concepts can be learned by
children as games. Grammar is his best
example.
Five year olds do not know what a verb is,
but they still use them correctly.
Games provide a contextual motivation that
drives the learning.

14. Misconceptions are difficult to change

15. CBE: Life Science Education. 7:227. 2008.
Misconceptions are difficult to change

16. Introduction to random motion

17. A biochemist became a game dev
Why I want to teach molecular biology with games
Molecular biology education must occur younger in life so that the concepts are
learned more completely and so the general public learns them, not just biology experts.
How to demonstrate intuitive learning occurs
This talk describes my evaluation methods as well as my game design methods.
Creating an intuitive game is ideal for engaging players and ideal for teaching
complex concepts,
But assessing intuitive learning is more difficult than accessing formal
knowledge.
You can make science games, too!
Get a scientist as a partner
Get funding (This is why assessment matters)
Iterative design with a larger development team…

18. Level 1, Immune Attack. Transmigration of Monocyte
Monocyte
Your Nanobot

19. Activating Selectin Proteins with our ray gun

20. Activated Selectin Proteins attract the monocyte

21. Evaluation of Learning and Confidence
Gains in Immune Attack Players

22. Immune Attack teaches students cell biology
Three Day Evaluation Protocol
7th -12 grade teachers register on our website.
Students are randomly assigned to the test group or the control group.
Week One
Students play Immune Attack OR the control game for 40 minutes.
Week Two
Students play Immune Attack OR the control game for 40 minutes.
The next day, students take online exam.

23. Two Years of Development
to create reliable test of Knowledge and Confidence

24. Immune Attack players score significantly better than
their classmates on our test of terms and concepts.
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Frequencies of Scores on Test of Terms and Concepts
IA N = 180 Control N = 160
Numberofquestionscorrect
Number of student with this score

25. Boys and girls, game players and non-
game playing students all scored
equally well on test of learning
All 0 hours/week 1 to 5
hours/week
6+
hours/week
Immune Attack Control
Control
0
5
10
15
20
All Girls Boys
Self reported hours per week
of video games played.
Numberofquestionsansweredcorrectly

26. Even students who did not pass the first level and who
responded that IA was not “easy to play” scored significantly
higher on cell biology questions compared to control
(classmates who played an unrelated game) .
All IA 1 2 3 4 5 All Ctrl
Response to Easy to Play?
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Immune
Attack
Level 1 Levels 2
and 3
Level 4 Level 5 Levels 6
and 7
Control
Numberofquestionsansweredcorrectly

27. Something that will
damage your ship.
An amino acid A protein that stops Monocytes.
A wiggly thing that is the
wrong target.
A lipid A protein that makes Monocytes
exit the blood vessel.
An object you need to
avoid.
A complex
carbohydrate
A protein that does not interact with
Monocytes.
A wiggly thing you need to
shoot to win.
A protein A protein that causes the Monocyte
to slow down.
75% 50% 51%
75% 52% 54%
74% 49% 50%
What is the arrow pointing to?
All
Girls
Boys
Students remember objects and their role in the game.

28. Immune Attack players remember best the
objects they needed to use/avoid/find.
All
Girls
Boys
What kind of
cell is this?
What color were
the Monocytes in
Immune Attack?
What color were
the Pseudomonas
bacteria?
What color are
were the
Neutrophils?
Amoeba Green Blue Yellow
Bacteria cell Yellow Yellow Blue
A skin cell Red Red Red
White Blood Cell Blue Green Green
43% 63% 40% 19%
48% 64% 45% 24%
38% 64% 35% 15%

29. Nature Reviews Immunology, 2007. 7:678.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

30. Immune Attack players gain confidence
A complex diagram looks as understandable as a
simpler diagram to IA players.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
1 2 3 4 5
Transmigration
1 2 3 4 5
Yellow Macrophages
Total Ctrl n = 161
Total IA n = 180

31. Immune Attack players gain confidence with
related images.
I would be able to understand this diagram
if I read it and thought about it.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
1 2 3 4 5
DATA All IA Players n = 180
Percentoftotalstudents
Disagree -------------- Agree
Get this paper: www.molecularjig.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Stegman-2014-Immune-Attack.pdf

32. Immune Attack players retain terms and concepts and
show increased confidence.
Non-gamers did not lose confidence!
Amount played and “ease” of playing helped.
Can we make a game that engages more people?

33. Immune Attack players retain terms and concepts and
show increased confidence.
Non-gamers did not lose confidence!
Amount played and “ease” of playing helped.
Can we make a game that engages more people?

34. Engaging more people
Tutorial
Meaningful decisions
Playtesting
Retaining players
Replayability
More levels
More bad guys

35. Bout us: We are an independent game studio and a double bottom line company. Our goals are to keep ourselves
in business and to increase general knowledge of molecular behavior. Molecules like proteins, lipids, drugs and
ions are are the key to understanding many important concepts: health, the environment, infectious disease,
public safety, etc. We will accomplish our goals by creating games that take place in the molecular world and
making them available to as wide an audience as possible.

36. Our Tutorial to make George Fan proud
Play our game demo at www.MolecuarJig.com/demo

37. The Kickstarter ends Jan 25!

38. A biochemist became a game dev
Why I want to teach molecular biology with games
Molecular biology education must occur younger in life so that the concepts are
learned more completely and so the general public learns them, not just biology experts.
How to demonstrate intuitive learning occurs
This talk describes my evaluation methods as well as my game design methods.
Creating an intuitive game is ideal for engaging players and ideal for teaching
complex concepts,
But assessing intuitive learning is more difficult than accessing formal
knowledge.
You can make science games, too!
Get a scientist as a partner
Get funding (This is why assessment matters)
Iterative design with a larger development team…

39. Apply for a grant

40. Our science game development cycle
Blog post: www.molecularjig.com/2014/09/15/iteration-and-collaboration/

41. www.ScienceGameCenter.org
Search by platform, subject or age group
Read reviews by players, teachers, scientists and game developers.
Contribute your own reviews, register as a teacher, scientists or game
developer or a player.
1800 Registered users
2400 Likes on Facebook
A curated list of
>80 Science Games
Submit your game!
Brought to you by
Molecular Jig Games.

42. Some more Seattle science game developers

43. Immune Defense
Learning Objectives
Randomness of molecular diffusion
Specificity of interactions between protein signals and protein receptors
Low and high affinity interactions are different
Cells have specific functions because of their unique complement of proteins
Cells can signal to each other
Cells respond to their environment if they have the correct receptors
Regulating which proteins you have on hand is important for cell function
Pathogens have evolved to thwart our immune system

44. Immune Defense
Learning Objectives
Random molecular diffusion drives predictable cell behavior
Player can spend Energy to change the location of molecules and dragging molecules closer to cells can help
move them to the pathogens faster.
Molecules are truly moving randomly in Immune Defense. Trying to catch them makes that clear, additionally,
cells sometimes move away from pathogens because the bind to a signal that is coming from the other
direction.
We encourage players to learn how random diffusion drive specific cell behaviors by rewarding the player for
saving their energy and not moving molecules when they don’t need to.
1) Energy is required to buy new cells and
2) remaining Energy is multiplied by score at end of level
Players learn
Cells move eventually to the Pathogen
Random motion of particles that begins at a source causes a gradient of particles.

45. Immune Defense
Learning Objectives
Specificity of interactions between ligands and protein
receptors, Low and high affinity interactions are different
Player is racing against an Inflammation clock, and so is under pressure to reach Pathogens quickly. Player
can use receptors that have higher affinity for the cytokine molecules, thus moving forward faster.
NK Cells and the adaptive immune cells will find target cells by binding with more than one receptor, and the
first receptor may let go before the second binds… which means the player is directly thwarted by the “off-
rate.”
Player learns: The structure (shape) of proteins and other molecules is important for their function. Proteins
have discrete tasks, and they cannot replace each other.

46. Immune Defense
Learning Objectives
Cells have specific functions because of their unique complement
of proteins
Cells can signal to each other
Cells respond to environment only if they have the correct
receptors
Regulating proteins expression is important for cell function
Players purchase the correct cell for the various Pathogen types.
Players regulate which proteins are on the cell surface.
Players can avoid getting infected by down regulating the pathogen binding receptors and can activate their cells
by upregulating their activation signal receiving receptors.
Cells have a defined set of proteins and their functions are limited to the proteins that have (differentiation of cells.

47. Immune Defense
Learning Objectives
Pathogens have evolved to thwart our immune system
Neutrophils follow 4 steps to kill pathogens: Detection, Binding, Phagocytosis and Dissolving in the
Phagosome. Pathogens accidently evolve genes that help the avoid these four steps. If pathogens can
avoid any of these 4 steps, they are harder to kill.
Players learn that evolution is not perfect: There are four steps to kill pathogens, and evolution gives
some pathogens an advantage. Pathogens cannot respond at the moment and suddenly become
resistant, evolution is not instant.