About Master the Science                           

Nortel LearniT 6ES Model           

Learning Games' Engaging Techniques

The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), Nortel LearniT and Nintendo of America have teamed to develop Master the Science, an interactive, Internet-accessed learning inquiry including the familiar Pokémon characters to engage students in a program that incorporates science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) themes into activity units for elementary and middle school students.  This teaming of three nationally-recognized, award-winning educational materials developers empowers teachers and students with easily accessible standards-based tools. 

The learning games allow students to “Master the Science…Master The Game” by joining with Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl and other characters in exploring the dimensions of time and space.  The collaboration provides an opportunity for children to learn 21st century science using 21st century tools with characters they know.  Capturing learners' imaginations via recognizable characters and symbols is just one ingredient in generating effective, engaged learning.

Located on the masterthescience.org web site, and also hosted on the Nortel LearniT/NIA partnership page, the activities center on downloadable lesson plans on the sun, shadows and space, but with the added interest of integrating Pokémon characters and scenarios to hold the children's interest.   The lesson plans for grades 3-5, for example, are Timekeeping by the Sun, Traveling with Dirty Snowballs and Living in Space. 

Learning standards

Each Master the Science lesson plan is tracked to national standards, including the National Science
Education Standards (Science as Inquiry, Earth and Space Science, Science and Technology); National Educational
Technology Standards (Creativity and Innovation, Communication and Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making, Digital Citizenship, Technology Operations and Concepts) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

The Timekeeping by the Sun lesson helps students explore ways to tell time using the Sun and other natural sky objects. Students experiment with a shadow stick (a gnomon), observing relationships between the Sun's position in the sky and the length of the shadow cast by the gnomon. 

The students' inquiries center around the image of the Pokémon character Piplup and the shadow cast by the sun behind Piplup.  Their observations are documented using linear measurement and digital images. Through Internet resources, students will learn more about the Sun-Earth relationship, shadows, and early timekeeping devices. Students may extend this lesson by creating their own timekeepers and practice using stars and the Moon to tell time. 

Learning Games' Award Winning Approaches to Engaging Learners

For some three decades, since the inception of educational software in the 1970s, educators have adopted the educational game platform for stimulating interest in learning.  To optimize learning success, educations have employed inquiry-based software to involve students with the activities of a well-defined character, making decisions and learning about those characters' environment...and their own.

In this vein, NASA NIA is long recognized for award-winning educational endeavors, including programs in its NASA’s Kids Science News Network™ which span the education horizon from grades K-12, through 13-18, to adult (lifelong) learners and have won more than 60 awards including 9 Emmys. Ninetendo's Pokémon Pokemon learning league, also a provider of standards-based interactive animated lessons, is the 2007 winner of the Eddie Award in the multisubject web site category (mathematics, science,  language arts, and life skills with additional curricular connections with social studies and library/technology). 

Just two months after release, interest is already high in the educational progam with Nortel LearniT hosting site statistics showing over 6000 visits to the game site worldwide from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, India, Ireland, South Africa, Pakistan, the Phillippines and many, many others. 

Its popularity is further evidenced by the fact that over 63% of site visitors add the web site to their Favorites lists.