Yes, I know I sort of slipped into netspeak there, but I am just quoting one of my third grade students who exclaimed this in class today.  It seemed like a netspeak moment.

What was the website he was on?  Wonderville.

Now, it is not an interactive world to be confused with Whyville, but it is a highly interactive science website created by the Alberta Science Foundation in Canada.  Yes, we’ve been borrowing a cup of sugar from the upstairs neighbors.

Wonderville has all four of my top four qualifications for a website to be used in the lab, and this really boils down to keeping everyone engaged and having fun, while competing with the quality of video games and websites students entertain themselves with outside of school.  It has:

• Excellent graphics (flash environment)
• Music, sound effects, and characters that speak in interaction with the user
• Challenging and stimulating activities
• Overall, busy and interactive

Students have many different options, including science games, interactive activities, science videos, and more.  The site also includes a wealth of teacher resources.  The most popular game by far is Operation Light and Shadow, which is not wholly dissimilar to Valve Corporation’s puzzle game Portal.  Students find themselves in a secret underground facility where an AI voice greets them with an air of menace: “Intruder alert!  Access to this facility is for authorized personnel only!  Ah, another child.  Lost are we?  I believe a friend of yours is here, too.  If you want to escape this facility, you will have to face my security systems.  I hope you know a lot about light and shadow.  Good luck…you will need it.”

Ooo!  Goosebumps!  The objective is to continue through rooms, opening doors by defeating said security system, which entails redirecting beams of light to the right portals using a system of mirrors.  It gets more complicated than that.  Hints and notes left behind by the friend Marie give students clues when they are stuck.  It’s very challenging and requires some major problem solving.  We might spend another week just talking about strategy and light and shadow, focusing on this game and Wonderville (even though we really need to move on to Netsmartz).  The past two weeks, we have spent some time on science websites to keep up the science fair hype, sneaking in some information fluency while we’re at it.

If you haven’t checked out Wonderville in the classroom or at home, it’s a fantastic science resource from the Alberta Science Foundation.