Earthquake Rebuild

The United States has fallen below many countries in international assessments of middle school aged students in the fields math and science. Computer games have only grown in popularity. In the last few decades, the time spent playing computer and video games have increased as well. Educational games try to recapture some of this time that may otherwise be wasted, but many have failed to preserve the main reason people are drawn to them, the sense of fun. Earthquake Rebuild is a game being developed to assist teachers in the presentation of the common core standards in mathematics in a fun and engaging way. The game is being developed for students in grades six through eight. The setting and story line are motivated by the Fukusima earthquake. The player will be rebuilding a village after its destruction by an earthquake. Earthquake Rebuild follows a progression from using temporary structures, such as the container mall found in New Zealand, to more permanent structures as the difficulty increases. Earthquake Rebuild is being developed by a small group of students, educators, and experts. The project is using Unity 4 as the game engine. A proof of concept demo is completed, with classes to score and track players, as well as classes that will ease the development of the next version.