What it is: Samarost is an intriguing flash website where students are dropped in the middle of a strange new universe where they must solve a variety of challenging puzzles. Students play a character that they must help save from an asteroid collision. There are no instructions on how to play the game, students simply use their best reasoning and deduction to solve the puzzles. With multiple levels, students can put those observational and reasoning skills to good use. I like that there are no instructions or hints about how to play the game, students learn how to play as they interact with the site.
How to integrate Samarost into the classroom: Samarost is an excellent challenge puzzle that will make students think in new ways and work to solve a problem. I like the idea of solving the problems as a class using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. Students can offer each other suggestions and tips about why a course of action might help solve the puzzle. There are enough levels to solve for each student to get a turn at the board. Samarost could also be played on individual computers in a lab setting or on classroom computers as an on-going center activity. If this is a center activity that many students will visit and work on together, you can have each student keep observational notes of what they have done and what they have tried to help the next student who visits the center. Since there are no rules or back story to this site, it would be fun to incorporate it into a creative writing project. Students could create a back story and explanation of what is happening to the character in Samarost.
Tips: This game is best for students who are 9 or older.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Samarost in your classroom.
What a terrific idea Kelly. Would this be appropriate for younger or older students do you think? This would definitely cater for the gifted students that we have that need exetnding in all areas.
Samarost is so beautifully made. I love all the Amanita Design offerings, although Questionaut has been the only one I didn’t struggle with! You could also have the students develop an ALMOST cheat sheet for other classes once they’ve cracked the puzzles ie add their own word puzzles or riddles for other students as hints to Samarost 1 and 2.
I was looking for an interesting gaming situation for the last few weeks of school and your review showed something that I might be able to use.
It was an interesting game, but when less than 5 minutes into the I got on the other asteroid and a guy is sitting there smoking from a bong, blowing smoke at the viewer, I have a few problems with that and am sure that my administrators would also.
While I like the idea, that clip wasn’t appropriate for for school and I can’t use this in my class.
Harold
I love the idea that there are no instructions. This means that students really need to collaborate to solve problems, which is something we try to get them to do quite often. But with this game, they really need to do it to forge ahead, and they will really want to do that. Cool!
Love this website…kept me going for long time. Needed the help of another adult to come up with possible solutions. Well developed. Will try it with my 7th grade computer class. Thank you for posting…
A great game, but would not be able to use that with students becasue of the bong on the first page…
I agree, the first puzzle is off-putting for use in a classroom because of the man smoking on the first page. But the rest of the game is so good, I wonder if there is a way to begin the game after the first puzzle? On classroom computers this might mean starting the game prior to students using it so that it starts at the second puzzle.
Yes, having no instructions on a site ensures that students think creatively about the tasks set before them and work together to complete them. That is always a winning combination!
I agree, the man smoking makes me hesitant to use this game in a school setting. I often like to use these types of situations to side track with students and have discussions about why this would or wouldn’t be appropriate for a school setting. Sometimes these small things are just the opportunity to get class discussions started that can lead to really good thinking and learning. Of course if an administration wouldn’t be comfortable with that, it is probably best not to go there. Depending on the setup you have in your classroom, you could have the computers set to the second challenge, skipping over the smoking man.
Nice idea to have students create cheat sheets for other students to solve the problems. That puts their descriptive writing skills to work.
This is definitely a site for older students. I think if you skipped over the man smoking you could use it whole class with younger students using a projector or IWB. It is a good site to help students look for clues (the pointer changing to a hand over places that are clickable).