Rigglefish
By Texas A&M University
Business Category
2010 Finalist
Skills and Ideas Taught: The principles of genetic science.
Goal or Challenge: Players must employ the resources in the game and apply their knowledge of genetics to breed target fish.
Primary Audience: High school biology students.
Assessment Approach: Successfully breeding the target fish requires player to meet the learning objectives. There is a point system that rewards accuracy and speed and punishes guessing.
Description: Rigglefish takes players to a top-secret underwater research lab where they play the role of Dr. Waters, a geneticist tasked by the government with developing a source for a protectant against a deadly bioweapon. That source is the Rigglefish, and players must breed a mating pair of Rigglefish with specified traits. Players use virtual instruments, including a bathysphere, pressure tank, Polymerase Chain Reaction, and gel electrophoresis, to capture Rigglefish and identify their phenotypes and genotypes. They then use the interactive Punnett Square to determine how to breed the target fish.
Game Engine: Flash and MySQL
Operating System: Windows
Platform: Personal computer
Special Hardware: None