Little Alchemy 2
Introducing Little Alchemy 2:
I would introduce this digital game at the beginning of the school year and revisit it as needed to help students be more comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing or understanding something. My goal for this game would be to build a growth mindset for my students through play. Students of varying ages learn skills and mindset best through play. This digital game allows for students to try, fail, try something new, and find success--building perseverance. There are plenty of handheld games, videos, or discussions that can be had about not giving up, but the act of playing games disguises it and makes it more engaging. There are questions students might have about what a new item is that they discovered, and I would encourage them to look it up and learn more about it.
| Starting Screen: Starting elements and steam, hints option on the bottom (or to the side on a computer), your encyclopedia of items discovered, and clean up button (cleans up your working space for discovering) |
 |
| Here is an example of how combining two objects in your "encyclopedia", earth and fire produces lava. |
 |
| Encyclopedia: Stores your game stats, items discovered, and you can search for items here as well |
What is Little Alchemy 2?
Little Alchemy 2 is a game where you start with the 4 basic elements: air, water, fire, and earth. From there you combine two elements together to create a new element/object. There are 720 of objects that can be created and unlocked by merging elements and other objects. You can leave and revisit the game and it will be saved with all your objects you unlocked. There is also an encyclopedia of the objects you discovered. Once all the objects have been discovered the game finishes with a black hole shooting out the objects with a message saying “everything’s discovered”.
Implementing In My Classroom:
When implementing this into my classroom I would start by modeling for students how it works on the board. I would then have them all follow the same combination I did on the board, so they see how it works. From there I would tell them to continue trying combinations. I would let them explore without clear instruction and goals. As students worked, I would walk around listening to what students were saying. The hope is it that students try, fail, and continue to try. I will challenge students to do it without asking me for help and to just try their best. After the class spends 20min trying, we would move on from the game and transition to a reflection then class discussion.
Goals:
- Growth Mindset
- Perseverance
- Grit
- Frustration Tolerance
Differentiation/Scaffolding:
Show students where hints for combinations are (they might find it themselves while exploring)
- List of some combinations
- Provide emotional guidance to help students self regulate, if they reach frustration
Provide support if they ask
Assessing Students and Learning Goals:
Written reflection
Class discussion
Vocabulary “Assessment”
perseverance
frustration tolerance
strategy
growth mindset
fixed mindset
SEL Exit Ticket
One challenge I faced today was…
The strategy I used to keep going was…
One thing I learned about myself is…
