Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.
Age:
Grades 5-8
Topic:
Problem solving
Address:
Review:
The object of Samorost 1 is to avert a collision between the gnome‘s home planet and a large incoming spaceship. To do this, he must explore the space ship. Interestingly enough, this is accomplished by simply pointing and clicking until you figure out how to progress.
There is a sequel–Samorost 2–that has won several awards, including (according to Wikipedia) a 2007 Webby; Independent Games Festival award 2007 for Best Web Browser Game; Best Web-Work Award at the Seoul Net Festival in 2006. The soundtrack won the Original Sound category at the Flashforward Film Festival 2006. You can play it online for a fee (though the first part is free).
Here’s a cute trailer for it–gives you a good idea of the game:
And here’s domarog’s walk-through, complete with haunting music:
Educational Uses
- Use critical thinking and problem solving skills to play the game
- work with partners–share solutions; work on teams if this suits your environment
- reflect on the journey in a blog or class website
- set up a Twitter stream so students can share their solutions to problems with classmates
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More Game Websites:
Weekend Website #126: BrainPop Game Up
Weekend Website 123: Google Gravity
Weekend Website #115: Minecraft
Weekend Website #101: Electrocity
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
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