foodforce

= = =** FOOD FORCE —An Open Source Educational Video Game **=

Food Force is an educational ‘serious’ video game developed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in 2005 to raise awareness of school children (and adults alike) to hunger and food problems in the world. WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries. WFP thinks that “communicating with children today mean using the latest technology”, and “will generate kids’ interest and understanding about hunger, which kills more people than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined (http://www.wfp.org/how-to-help/individuals/food-force.)” The game can be played by a single player or by multiple players. It is available in many languages. According to the WFP website, Food Force has been downloaded over 6 million times and estimated to have 10 million players worldwide. Since the release of the program, Food Force gained much acclaim as the first humanitarian video game for children.
 * Description **



**Fig. 1 Opening Scene of Food Force** The game centers on the fictional island of Sheylan where people suffer from food shortage by long drought and civil war. The game is based on actual WFP missions. There are six missions in the game where UN virtual aid workers carry out various aid tasks (see Table 1). Each mission begins with a briefing on the task ahead by a member of the virtual UN aid workers. The player's characters are the director of food purchasing, a nutritionist, a logistics officer, and the player of the game that plays the role of a new officer to the UN food aid team. All six missions can be played in an hour.

2. Finding a balanced diet within a budget of only 30 cents per day 3. Air drop food supplies in a target zone 4. Procuring and coordinating food supplies around the world 5. Lead a food convoy to camps navigating landmines and roadblocks 6. Rebuilding a village over a long term ||
 * Table 1 **
 * Six Missions of Food Force **
 * 1. Finding hungry citizens in a helicopter


 * [[image:mission1.png]] || [[image:Mision2.png]] || [[image:Mission3.png]] || [[image:Mission4.png]] || [[image:Mission5.png]] || [[image:Mission6.png]] ||
 * Fig. 2 Six Missions of Food Force Game **

There is a sequel to Food Force, Food Force 2. The gameplay is developed from a view point of an Indian villager dealing with different aspects of the management of a village. There are nine missions Food Force 2.

Educational video games, also called edutainment, has been proved to be effective in teaching certain skills due to its immersive nature (Gee, 2005; Prensky, 2006; Schell, 2010). With Food Force, children are exposed to a new concept otherwise not interested in in a simulated entertained context. Food Force is effective in making the children of the western nations aware of the world hunger problems, nutritious values, logistics issues, and what it would take to rebuild a viable village. The Food Force website has a section for teachers and students that contain classroom activities ideas. Teachers can download math, geography, country specific and hunger awareness classroom activities. Everything is free.
 * Impact on Teaching and Learning **

** Fig. 3 Food Force Educators’ Webpage **

Food Force is ideal for the elementary social science ,  geography, and math class. The video game can be an entry point to much deeper research and project-based class activities. For example, students can research the actual statistics of hunger worldwide and think and act on what they can do to aid the hunger at their level and at the community level. This type of activities would nurture critical and long-term thinking, whereas it promotes the sense of global citizenship.
 * Practical Applications **

media type="youtube" key="8cUbslBMioo" height="360" width="640"
 * Demonstrations **
 * Food Force video game trailer **
 * Uploaded to youtube by [|Yusef7] on Feb 10, 2007 (1 min 26 seconds) **

 Food Force website and download page[|: http://www.wfp.org/how-to-help/individuals/food-force] Food Force 2 website and download page http://foodforce2.com/downloads.php Gee. J. P. (2005). "Learning by Design: good video games as learning machines". //E-Learning, Volume 2// (Number 1), p. 5-16 Prensky, M. (2006). Don't bother me mom--I'm learning. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House. Schell, Jesse. (2010). “DICE 2010: Design Outside the Box” presentation, February 18, 2010 @http://www.g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/
 * References **

Common sense media review http://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/food-force Games in Education (videos by James Paul Gee, Katie Salen, Jane McGonigal, David Perry) http://gamesined.wikispaces.com/Videos UN News Center review http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22564&Cr=WFP&Cr1= Wikipedia Entry for Food Force video game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Force
 * External Links **


 * About the Author **
 * [[image:ClaireWGlasses_Jan4_2011_smallsize.png]] ||  || Claire Hitosugi PhD is a Japanese instructor and an ETEC MA student at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Claire is interested in how the best Web 2.0 technology can be integrated in the existing curriculum, and aims for incremental teaching innovations. You can find another tech wiki entry, Eyejot, by Claire at http://etec602.wikispaces.com/Eyejot.  For more about her, please visit her website: http://claireh.weebly.com/index.htm l She can be reached at hitosugi@hawaii.edu. This page was created on September 29, 2011. ||