Mission Possible Review
by Diane S. Kendall
The current political situation indeed reminds us that all the world is getting to be a smaller stage. But what about all the players? Can your students correctly identify on a blank line master map of the world countries like Iraq, France, Turkey, or Afghanistan?
National surveys and "person on the street" interviews on programs like Jay Leno and the Tonight show indicate that the answer to that question is likely to be "no". But these seemingly distant and irrelevant places are becoming more and more relevant every day.
You may already be teaching some geography in your class. It's hard though to make it more up-close and personal rather than just a monotonous litany of facts and figures.
One thing the computer has been good at over the years is making geography into a game and a new piece of software called Mission Possible World Geography from EdVenture Software for ages 10 and up follows brilliantly in that tradition. By answering multiple-choice questions, players come closer to completing their mission - repairing a computer at an isolated weather research station before it crashes, melts down, and nukes a solution for global warming.
Queries like "What two countries border the Rio Grande?, What is the capital of Australia?, and "Where is St. Basil's Cathedral?" flash on the screen. As players input correct and timely answers their customized secret agent scales sheer walls, fecklessly fends off fierce creatures and battles through other obstacles. Once they get inside the disabled weather station, more correct answers and lives earned by having known the answers to bonus rounds allows them to install a chip to cool things off, download data and bring it back for analysis at headquarters.
There is not problem-solving going on here like in the Carmen Sandiego versions of geography trivia - this is more "just the facts, ma'am". But there is certainly a place for that in a computer lab, in the back of your classroom when kids are done with work and for kids who just can't get enough trivia. No one knows that better than the former classroom teacher and founder of the tiny one-man EdVenture software company, John Crandall. Kids are immediately drawn into the game because of the well done 3-D graphics and can pick up where they left off at any time.
So if you've noticed that your students don't know where they are in the world, get them on a Mission Possible right away. And congratulations to a small software company for filling a gap in the market so well!
