G4C Industry Circle: Filament Games on promoting civics education through serious games

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YouTube Live Q&A Session with Filament Games (March 1)

In our third installment of the G4C Industry Circle series, Filament Games and iCivics.org will share the four P's of designing learning games with impact. Join our YouTube livestream on March 1 at 3:30 p.m. EST to learn more and ask them questions.

Promoting Civics Education through Serious Games By Filament Games
In today's political climate, it's important to remember that there is a strong link between civic knowledge and civic engagement. Simply put, our system thrives if Americans understand how our government and its branches work. In fact, our public schools were founded to teach young people to understand these structures, and to cultivate informed citizens. Yet students are growing up in an uncivic-minded era. More than ever, there is a concern that young people are not voting and are becoming disillusioned with the political process.

Filament Games has been working for years to address this issue with their partner iCivics.org, which was recently named one of 2017's Most Innovative Education Companies by Fast Company. With a reach of over 7 million students, 155,000 registered teachers, and users in all 50 United States, the platform is having a massive impact on how America teaches civics.

Filament has partnered with iCivics.org over the years to publish a total of 19 civics learning games on their platform. Efficacy has been measured by multiple research organizations, providing fascinating insights into the positive impact that game-based learning can have on civics education and teaching outcomes in general:

A study conducted by Baylor University found a statistically significant 19% mean increase in test scores from pretest to posttest scores across students in grades 4-11.
CIRCLE researchers at Tufts University found that students who used iCivics' "Drafting Board" scored 7.48% higher on essay exams.
A study conducted by Arizona State showed a 20% improvement in student knowledge between pretest and posttest results.

But what fuels the efficacy of these games? Over the years, Filament Games and iCivics have developed a game and platform design methodology with a dedicated focus on purpose, process, practicality, and playability. Carrie Ray-Hill, iCivics Director of Content, recently unpacked this methodology in an article titled "The 4 P's of Designing Learning Games with Impact," published on the Filament Games blog. This methodology drives impact in each game through successful incorporation of learning objectives, design and platform choices that engage the player in a way that sticks, and in a way that supports the larger educational effort of iCivics.org.

To learn more about how games can support civics education, tune into our G4C Industry Circle YouTube livestream on March 1 with Filament Games, a two-year member of the Industry Circle. Dan White and Dan Norton, co-founders of Filament Games, will be joined by Carrie Ray-Hill of iCivics for a discussion about the 4 P's of designing impactful learning games, the community stewardship that helps to inform a bipartisan take on our country's governance, and, with an eye toward the future, how Filament is helping update the existing iCivics platform and games to better support classrooms and districts as they increase tablet utilization.