Now online at the Nobel Prize web site is a series of Educational Games, designed for younger children, but still fascinating as an example of how basic concepts in science, economics, and literature can be easily imparted by using a visual narrative and a directed simulation to teach interactively.

I used it to make some plastics with the help of a talking rubber duck and learned about monomers, polymers, thermosets, and why nylon stockings run so easily. You can also help stop nuclear arms proliferation and join a tribe on The Lord of Flies.

There are other games which academics have helped to design that accurately reflect scholarship. Professor Katherine Smith of the History Department recommends the Museum of London’s online game The Medieval Game of Life, which helps students get a historically accurate appreciation for the range of life and career choices available in those times.

There are signs that both the study and use of computer simulations and gaming are entering the academic mainstream, including a number of academic journals on the topic. And computer gamers are beginning to return the favor.

The University’s own Professor Andrew Nierman’s Java Instructional Gaming Project is one of these efforts, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.