Weekly blog from November 5th

I learned two words I still have trouble pronouncing: Exogenous and Endogenous. These describe two different game types. I and my group who played a video game on a laptop were the only ones in the room who got to experience both types of games. We played Math Blaster and it is exogenous. Repetition of discrete facts (arithmetic) will get you through this game with a little keyboard tapping. I think a session of flash cards with a comedian would be more interesting. How would you make arithmetic into an Endogenous game? I heard a story once of third world children who would help out at their parents' stall at the market, as a byproduct of their having to occasionally run the stall themselves they were really sharp at arithmetic. It would seem that if arithmetic was woven into a game as a real organic tool, not the main attraction, like the third world sales-children you might see a mastery of arithmetic.
My group grew very bored with Math Blaster, we needed an Endogenous game, we watched another group play Spore. Very Endogenous. Tools were offered and could be used creatively. This clearly was the venue for some learning.
As a teacher though I can see why Math Blaster was developed, it is basically flash cards and if it can create interest then it could help in learning arithmetic skills. So how do you create an Endogenous game that can help teach arithmetic. It seemed the answer was Supercharged!, a game developed at MIT to help physics students understand the unintuitive concepts of electromagnetism through a game. It was reviewed as a great prototype of an Endogenous game and as a current physics student I was very interested. Supercharged! does not seem to exist, searches find articles that cross reference each other but never a way to get the game, no download no sales. Clearly there is more to this story. Why is this game that supposedly was developed five years ago nowhere? Is there more to making a endogenous game that teaches a specific academic subject? This will be my search. I want to find such a game and see if it is possible. Stay tuned.